Reply to When should DC drop its school mask mandate?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]So it just seems like the "continuing maskers" people are doing some sort of intense tone-policing and gaslighting now.  "Don't get hysterical!"  "There were no problems!"

Your kid can continue masking.  Other people's kids had different experiences than yours.  Have some empathy that other kids have not had as easy of a time with masking as yours.  [/quote]

Right, it's the people who want children to be vaccinated and wear masks indoors when they can't/won't be vaccinated who are gas-lighting and engaging in town police. Cool story, bro. [/quote]

My kids are vaccinated and they are still masking outdoors, masking indoors, getting tested every week, and checking in with an app every morning that says they should stay home if they have a runny nose. No one recommends doing this, but here we are. Yes, I'm annoyed. [/quote]

That's crazy. What school is this?[/quote]

It is crazy! Sela. We just got an email yesterday that they're doing additional antigen tests post spring break, plus the regular weekly testing, and also that 'in the coming days' they will make a determination about outdoor masking and other restrictions. It apparently takes a week just to tell us that they're considering whether to lift outdoor masking. [/quote]

We're at Sela, and the reason that they have been able to be open since November 2020 (yup, 2020) is that they have been exceedingly careful. We cannot on one hand argue that charter schools are semi-autonomous entities, and then argue that they are bound to have fewer restrictions because DOH or OSSE says so at any given moment. Sadly, only 54% of eligible students are vaccinated and only 69% of teachers/staff are boosted (all are vaccinated). Those aren't great numbers in a school with five PK classes. It makes sense to have antigen tests after many families will be traveling. Weekly testing also makes sense. Sela is test-to-stay. Being opposed to testing is curious. The school will eventually lift on masking outdoors. I would not suspect that they will lift on masking indoors for younger grades - and they will likely maintain aftercare pods until after PK students can be vaccinated. We will see if the school decides to mandate the COVID vaccine next year. Hopefully, they will. [/quote]

Have you been paying any other attention to what other schools are doing this year? They are all open. Most do not have higher vaccination rates. Very few are doing what Sela is doing, which now increasingly deviates from public health guidance with zero explanation as to why. This is not 2020 anymore. And why is 'eventually' ok for the most basic and no-brainer policy of lifting outdoor masking? What science do they have access to that practically no one else in the country is? [/quote]

Are you opposed to testing? Where does the public health guidance discourage testing...I will wait. Are you opposed to test to stay...again, where is that discouraged? Sela doesn't have a vaccine mandate -but DCPS does, I am guessing you are opposed to vaccine mandates - which the "public health guidance" supports. You have a very agenda-driven, cafeteria approach to COVID mitigation. Charter schools are run by boards. I suggest you complain - but most of the parents at Sela are unlikely to sign onto your agenda to lift masks inside the school building.

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Updated guidance from the DC Department of Health now explicitly says "Screening testing is not necessary when COVID-19 community levels are LOW." (Which, obviously, it is.) That's just as of yesterday. But there was also a period where the CDC explicitly said that vaccinated people should not be part of screening (that is, asymptomatic testing) programs, and Sela was still including them.

I think vaccine mandates for kids are unnecessary, and I don't think DCPS is really going to enforce them. I think if Sela tried to, they'd have fights with a lot of parents, but I would not be among them. I don't know where you got the idea that I'm opposed to vaccine mandates, since the only thing I said about vaccines was that my kids are vaccinated.

And if Sela is going to keep masking indefinitely regardless of community levels and regardless of DOH and of what DCPS does, I think that's a mistake, but also I just want to know so that I can make alternative decisions for my kids for next year. I object to some of their choices, but what I object to at least as much is the lack of information about under what conditions they stop doing this stuff. I have no idea what their decision-making processes are. And that's not because I haven't brought this up.  [/quote]

Well, honestly, there is a duty to read. There is a Tuesday folder with all of the COVID information and the Board meetings are publicized (with meeting notes online). There is also a monthly PTSA meeting, where they have discussed COVID policies multiple times. If you aren't doing that -you have zero standing to complain. The teachers don't determine policy.  [/quote]

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