When should DC drop its school mask mandate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d wear a mask at the store for the rest of my life if it makes people feel safe, but I really, really want my kids to go mask free at school as soon as possible.

X 1000

X2000

I'm also tired of being lumped in with anti-maskers, Covid deniers, anti-vaxxers, even the anti-CRT crazies, etc. because I don't want my kindergartener to wear a mask at school anymore. It's so frustrating. I wish we could just acknowledge that having young kids wear masks to school for several years might have a negative impact on them. And if we really HAVE to keep them masked, then I think we need clear evidence the masks help AND a plan for addressing issues that kids will develop as a result of being masked this long.

But instead we just get yelled at for not caring enough about public health, despite being triple vaccinated and wearing K95s everywhere I go.

[Anonymous]

I’m tried of having my kids cry b/c they hate the masks.

Then, I’m tired of them crying b/c an adult was bullied in to telling them that they had to wear it or else they both get in trouble.

This is nuts.

[Anonymous]

I saw a tweet this morning from a guy in VA saying his kids cried when he told them they'd have to keep wearing masks when their district when mask-optional. It's like, which is it? Kid's "don't mind" wearing masks and don't even notice them, or actually it's really unpleasant for kids and they desperately want to stop doing so?

There is so much goalpost shifting going on in this conversation. Why can't we just identify the metrics that mean we drop the mask mandate and then stick to that? If cases go down as they have been, we take masks off. If they go back up, we put them back on. I don't think kids will have a hard time with that at this stage -- they get it.

It's especially bizarre in DC where the mayor is rescinding the mask mandate for adults but keeping the school mandate. It's either safe to go unmasked or it's not! Kids are generally at lower risk for Covid than adults so this makes even less sense. If people are welcome to go unmanned at bars, restaurants, sporting events, concerts, etc., why the heck would little kids at low risk be expected to mask "to protect" the vaccinated adults around them? And likewise, if it's not safe for kids to go unmasked at school, why on earth are you even allowed to eat in a restaurant?

You can't make it make sense, because it doesn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's safe to say that masks will stay at least through the end of this year, and quite possible into the next school year.

I guess everyone's invested in this topic already saw the news about the leaked audio with CDC director confirming they are 'recommending' for school masks to stay: https://www.dailywire.com/news/leaked-audio-reveals-cdc-director-saying-she-wont-halt-school-mask-guidance, in addition to some other statements reminding that CDC is just the politics puppets: “I will also say that guidance is just guidance, and all of these decisions, we’ve continued to say, have to be made at the local level." “As cases come down dramatically, we have deferred our guidance to the local jurisdictions.” DC WTA will be celebrating this, I bet.

Given the political nature of the CDC these days, I am hoping that this position will become politically untenable in the next couple of months. Remember midterms are approaching. I hope the changing public sentiment on this issue will force their hand to update their unscientific guidance.

Some Ds are starting to see the writing on the wall but I think that even now they are too late. Too many Ds are still so myopic on COVID. I think they scared themselves silly and they can't pull themselves out of it and they keep trying to sustain themselves politically by pandering to the [increasingly dwindling] segment of the population who is still so emotionally attached to feeling "safe" by strict adherence to COVID rules. But 2/3 of the country is now able to see the Forest [all of rest of life] for the Trees [COVID]. And they are going to vote the Ds out office. I'm a D who has always voted D and I was all for sensible restrictions for quite a while, but I'm done

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d wear a mask at the store for the rest of my life if it makes people feel safe, but I really, really want my kids to go mask free at school as soon as possible.

X 1000

X2000

I'm also tired of being lumped in with anti-maskers, Covid deniers, anti-vaxxers, even the anti-CRT crazies, etc. because I don't want my kindergartener to wear a mask at school anymore. It's so frustrating. I wish we could just acknowledge that having young kids wear masks to school for several years might have a negative impact on them. And if we really HAVE to keep them masked, then I think we need clear evidence the masks help AND a plan for addressing issues that kids will develop as a result of being masked this long.

But instead we just get yelled at for not caring enough about public health, despite being triple vaccinated and wearing K95s everywhere I go.

Very well said. I feel all of this so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I saw a tweet this morning from a guy in VA saying his kids cried when he told them they'd have to keep wearing masks when their district when mask-optional. It's like, which is it? Kid's "don't mind" wearing masks and don't even notice them, or actually it's really unpleasant for kids and they desperately want to stop doing so?

There is so much goalpost shifting going on in this conversation. Why can't we just identify the metrics that mean we drop the mask mandate and then stick to that? If cases go down as they have been, we take masks off. If they go back up, we put them back on. I don't think kids will have a hard time with that at this stage -- they get it.

It's especially bizarre in DC where the mayor is rescinding the mask mandate for adults but keeping the school mandate. It's either safe to go unmasked or it's not! Kids are generally at lower risk for Covid than adults so this makes even less sense. If people are welcome to go unmanned at bars, restaurants, sporting events, concerts, etc., why the heck would little kids at low risk be expected to mask "to protect" the vaccinated adults around them? And likewise, if it's not safe for kids to go unmasked at school, why on earth are you even allowed to eat in a restaurant?

You can't make it make sense, because it doesn't.

There are no metrics because there is no science to tell us exactly under which circumstances masks help, and how much. If you don't have solid data on that, it's impossible to know when it is "safe" to remove them. The availability of vaccines for all school-age children (not preschool) should have been the point of exit, but we missed that opportunity.

[Anonymous]

I don’t see why it matters. None of us are keeping our kids home because of this.

If it’s another month or September does it really matter?

My kids cry about wearing a mask. I have never seen one kid of our 400 plus ES cry about wearing a mask. Do your kids cry about wearing pants or shoes? We make them do that and they survive and thrive.

It does feel like we are getting out of this but hastiness isn’t going to win this race.

[Anonymous]

I hope everyone posting here does realize that what happens here in DC schools only applies to DC schools. This doesn’t affect your school anywhere else in the country.

DC schools doesn’t do anything nationally.

Schools are run locally and not by the dept of Ed.

For DC parents wondering about this post: omg so many people think things are run in DC to their schools. They needed to be reminded they are yelling in the wrong place.

[Anonymous]

Does the MOA between the WTU and DCPS, which appear to be in effect for the full school year, mean that we'll have masks all year, no matter what (see bottom of pg. 6)?

https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/wtulocal6action/pages/32/attachments/original/1629843389/Fall_2021_MOA_-_Signed.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does the MOA between the WTU and DCPS, which appear to be in effect for the full school year, mean that we'll have masks all year, no matter what (see bottom of pg. 6)?

https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/wtulocal6action/pages/32/attachments/original/1629843389/Fall_2021_MOA_-_Signed.pdf

I’m not sure how set in stone this doc is, for example there is a Cohorting section, when we know cohorting was discontinued a while ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t see why it matters. None of us are keeping our kids home because of this.

If it’s another month or September does it really matter?

My kids cry about wearing a mask. I have never seen one kid of our 400 plus ES cry about wearing a mask. Do your kids cry about wearing pants or shoes? We make them do that and they survive and thrive.

It does feel like we are getting out of this but hastiness isn’t going to win this race.

What makes you think DCPS will unmask children in September if they aren't able to do it now? Right now we have all the data we need to prove that

(a) masking in schools is not effective - it didn't stop Omicron and pretty much across the country infection rates were the same regardless of mask policies
(b) Omicron - the version of COVID circulating right now is the equivalent of a cold for most children; even unvaccinated children have equivalent outcomes to the flu [which has no school interventions]
(c) overall hospitalization rate is at an all time low
(c) students are suffering - they are increasingly disaffected and not forming relationships in the school community that are associated with long term positive outcomes
(d) school age children over the age of 5 have ample access to vaccines

Now is the right time to do this, not 6 months from now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope everyone posting here does realize that what happens here in DC schools only applies to DC schools. This doesn’t affect your school anywhere else in the country.

DC schools doesn’t do anything nationally.

Schools are run locally and not by the dept of Ed.

For DC parents wondering about this post: omg so many people think things are run in DC to their schools. They needed to be reminded they are yelling in the wrong place.

What are you babbling about? We are DCPS parents talking about DCPS. Are you imagining most of the people posting here are from other school districts? Because you can't imagine DC parents being done with masks?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t see why it matters. None of us are keeping our kids home because of this.

If it’s another month or September does it really matter?

My kids cry about wearing a mask. I have never seen one kid of our 400 plus ES cry about wearing a mask. Do your kids cry about wearing pants or shoes? We make them do that and they survive and thrive.

It does feel like we are getting out of this but hastiness isn’t going to win this race.

What makes you think DCPS will unmask children in September if they aren't able to do it now? Right now we have all the data we need to prove that

(a) masking in schools is not effective - it didn't stop Omicron and pretty much across the country infection rates were the same regardless of mask policies
(b) Omicron - the version of COVID circulating right now is the equivalent of a cold for most children; even unvaccinated children have equivalent outcomes to the flu [which has no school interventions]
(c) overall hospitalization rate is at an all time low
(c) students are suffering - they are increasingly disaffected and not forming relationships in the school community that are associated with long term positive outcomes
(d) school age children over the age of 5 have ample access to vaccines

Now is the right time to do this, not 6 months from now.

Yes, this is the issue. If there was a guarantee that masks will come off next school year, I'd be ok waiting. But I doubt things will look better then than now (and possibly things will look worse), so the time to end the school mask charade is now. Really, it should have happened as soon as all 5+ year olds had the chance to be fully vaccinated, but Omicron got in the way of that possibility (even though it shouldn't have). So now Omicron is receding, and we need to seize the opportunity, or I'm afraid this will go on for years.

[Anonymous]

My post about DC being more radical about masking kids even more than most liberal places like Seattle got deleted TWICE: yesterday and just now. Do I understand correctly the forum admin eventually cleans up discussions insisting that kids mask should go?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My post about DC being more radical about masking kids even more than most liberal places like Seattle got deleted TWICE: yesterday and just now. Do I understand correctly the forum admin eventually cleans up discussions insisting that kids mask should go?

This is why there’s a Website Feedback forum. If your hypothesis was correct explain how this thread is now what, 23 pages long?