One More Time, With Feeling

In case you hadn’t heard, HoCo’s anti-maskers made an appearance at last night’s Board of Education meeting. A rough summary of their combined testimony includes the following:

References to the Nuremberg trials
there is no scientific reason to mask kids
the mask mandate is an abuse of power
the school board is acting outside the law
children will be actively harmed by wearing masks at school.

I’m appalled but not surprised.

At the suggestion of a friend I wrote a letter to the board in support of masking. You can, too. The address is boe@hcpss.org .

Thank you so much for making the wise choice in requiring masks in school this year. The delta variant is spreading rapidly and children are even more affected than before.

Masking will help to protect young children, who cannot be vaccinated yet. It will also protect teachers, admin, and support staff. Anything which slows or prevents the spread of COVID at school will also slow or prevent its spread outside of school to the families connected to our school communities.

I know this may not be a popular choice for some. No one really enjoys wearing masks. But it is a decision made with public health in mind and I strongly support it.

It is not the best letter I have ever written but it is certainly the fastest.

No one likes wearing masks, but the extremely active spread of the Delta variant of COVID clearly warrants masking for this school year or at least until all school aged children can be vaccinated.

As I wrote not all that long ago, our individual choices in the pandemic affect so many others. To claim personal autonomy in this instance while ignoring the harm that one could unleash through one’s actions is profoundly selfish. And dangerous.

If you have a moment today, send an email to the board telling them how much you support the masking mandate. Imagine how many negative letters they get. Your letter in support of something that they are doing could be a ray of light in their day. And it might just strengthen their resolve to continue doing the safest and most effective thing we have right now to protect our children, teachers, staff, and families.

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