Wichita Schools will NOT mandate masks for staff and students!
My wife Erin and I have decided to not send our daughter Alya back to in-person school for the remainder of 2021. We have taken this decision as the delta variant is more transmissible and affecting more young people, unlike the original Coronavirus strain, and Alya is only 11, with her 12th birthday not being until the end of November, therefore is not eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine until that time.
Reading the Facebook comments on this Kake article regarding the USD259 BOE decision to ‘strongly encourage’ masks, just reinforces our decision to not send our daughter to a physical school. The fact that so many parents, assuming the people commenting are parents, are willing to send their kids to school not wearing a mask, because of freedom, is very disturbing. As parents, we are responsible for protecting our children to the best of our ability, and in my opinion, risking our children for our own beliefs, whatever those beliefs may be is irresponsible, all to not wear a piece of cloth on our faces.
We feel safer sending our son, Conner to school, he is starting his senior year of high school, has been fully vaccinated, and will wear a mask throughout the school day, by his own choice. He even wears a mask in the car with us, so I am confident that he will keep his mask on, he is a smart kid who realizes the dangers of COVID-19, and doesn’t listen to other’s propaganda about the efficacy of wearing a mask.
The Wichita board of education’s decision confuses me, they strongly encourage wearing a mask for staff and students, but require visitors to wear a mask in the building. There is zero logic in this decision, unless they plan to force all staff and students to remain, effectively quarantined, in the building for the whole of the school year, they can still bring COVID-19 into the building, just like a visitor could.
It seems to me that this Wichita BOE decision was driven by parents’ wishes, to have the choice of whether their child has to wear a mask or not in the school building, irrespective of what is actually best for the safety of the children. It’s even more stupid when the same children that are strongly encouraged to wear a mask in school, are required to wear a mask on the school bus, on their way to school.
I’m speculating, but I am betting that the parents that are anti-mask, are also anti-vax too, because freedom. Erin and I are expressing our freedom, by not potentially exposing our daughter to COVID-19.
You can think that I am anti-freedom, or a sheep, I don’t give a !@#$, in the state of Kansas, COVID-19 infections are back up to early February 2021 numbers, and rising. If that doesn’t give you pause to think that maybe we should be taking the same precautions of social distancing and wearing a mask, like we did six months ago, you value freedom over human life. I prioritize someone’s life over your freedom!
As you can see from the chart above, numbers are rising rapidly, and the delta variant is more likely to affect children, so my question is how many children have to be infected before school goes virtual again? People complain about their freedoms being infringed upon, yet refuse to mask up, social distance, or get the vaccine, destroying any chance of returning to normal any time soon. I would love to be proven wrong, but every time that COVID-19 rules are relaxed, we see Coronavirus infection numbers rise.
I’m very disappointed in the USD259 board of education, that in all their correspondence, they never once mentioned that an online learning option was available for students. It is called Education Imagine Academy, which I only found out about due to it being written in the aforementioned Kake news article.
Shaun Heald, responded to my comment on the Kake News article posted to Facebook, with propaganda masquerading as scientific studies. I click on his profile and the top post on his feed is the same link he shared in his response to my comment, which has been previously debunked, even Facebook and their ‘independent’ fact-checkers have flagged it as false information, with a link to the fact check.