Anonymous wrote:I think we should band together as ECE parents and ask:
1) Drop the mask mandate for this age group when cases are low
2) No outdoor mask requirement at all (not for kids during recess, not for parents during drop off)
3) The only masks that will ever be required ar K95s, and the school will provide these when they are needed during a surge in cases
The masks are a joke for this age group anyway. They take them off for snacks, lunch, and rest time. Many kids are wearing cloth or surgical masks that don't fit, and they slip off or the kids are messing with them or they get wet and become useless. Teachers are having to spend a lot of time monitoring mask use, making sure kids don't lose them, checking on mask fit, etc. And is it really protecting anyone? Given the level of mask use I see in my kid's PK class, and the number of non-Covid viruses that have swept through the class throughout the year -- no.
Kids can't hear each other, and the teachers can't hear them. There is a cost, and it gets higher the longer it goes on.
I'd like to see us go mask optional by April, by fall at the very very latest. I actually think many teachers would be on board with this based on conversations with my kid's teacher.
I think we need to get noisy and ask for a reasonable policy that actually reflects how children this age wear masks, what their actual Covid risk is (very low) and what the experience of kids in this district have been in terms of Covid spread (any of your kids have any Covid spread in your classroom? We have not and there have been kids with Covid in our class, as well as kids with sibling with Covid).
Not just ECE. Why not vaccinated kids before ECE?