Editor, The Smithfield Times:

How is lifting mask mandates in Virginia’s public schools a win for the kids?

Considering that COVID is still running rampant as I write this letter and vaccination rates in Hampton Roads remain below 75%, removing a rule that keeps students safe seems like a loss. The point of wearing a mask throughout this pandemic has been to keep yourself and others safe, and continuing to mask up is the best way forward.

It could be more comfortable for the students to be maskless, but is their comfort more important than safety? I cannot imagine how teachers must be feeling right now, especially with the teacher shortage schools are experiencing. While it sounds like a good idea to allow parents to choose whether their child wears a mask to school, most parents are not scientists, nor do they have the background to warrant making such an important decision.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin making an executive decision that those mandates are unnecessary goes directly against what the WHO and CDC have been saying for the last two years, along with ignoring the statistics and transmission rates.

Four Hampton Roads school districts have chosen to let parents decide whether their children wear masks, which could cause a surge in positive cases, and subsequent illness and death. Continue to wear a mask and tell Gov. Youngkin that this is a mistake.

 

Meagan Morrison-Crabill

Newport News