New Year, Same Old Story

Last holiday break, we fought to reopen schools (again), now we are fighting school mask mandates (again)

Dec 28, 2022

Last winter holiday break, instead of just chilling with our families as we did pre-2020, we grew alarmed by news that school districts were planning to remain virtual for “just a couple of weeks,” after kids returned from Christmas break. So on January 3, 2022, after uniting parent coalitions from across the country, we issued the press release below.

Now, as 2023 approaches, school districts are reimposing mask mandates or talking about reimposing them after what should be a joyful (not fretful) winter break.

What will end this once and for all?

Coalition of Parent Advocate Groups Issue Urgent Call to Keep Schools Open

Parent groups across the country respond to school closures & shifts to remote in K-12 schools

(Nationwide) — Responding to an alarming spate of actual and threatened closures of schools across the country and sudden shifts to remote learning, parent groups across the nation have come together to reiterate the message that, despite an uptick in Covid-19 cases and the surge of the Omicron variant, schools are safe, essential and must remain open for in-person learning.

Throughout this pandemic children have been subjected to the harshest restrictions, despite being the lowest-risk demographic. For over 21 months children have been forced to pay the greatest price, while adults have largely gone on with their lives and recreational activities. This has led the Surgeon General to declare a mental health crisis among American children for the first time in U.S. history.

President Biden, Education Secretary Cardona, and our prominent health experts and union leaders all unanimously agree that schools must remain open. Numerous studies have shown that children and staff are safer in school than outside of school, and there are multiple life-saving vaccines and treatments available to treat a virus which is no longer novel. The President has repeatedly said there will be no more lockdowns and schools and businesses should remain fully open, providing no logical rationale for closing schools.

We are in agreement with President Biden’s statement that “We can keep our K-through-12 schools open, and that’s exactly what we should be doing.”

Between a crushing epidemic of learning loss and deteriorating mental health, kids are suffering even more today than in 2020. We cannot move backwards: we must move forward and restore normalcy, which centers on in-person school for all kids across the country, in educational environments devoid of unnecessary restrictions on children.

We call on governors, mayors, superintendents, school boards, school administrators, teachers and parents to recognize the importance of in-person education for America’s children and keep our nation’s schools open.

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Signatories:

Arlington Parents for Education, Virginia, arlingtonparentsforeducation@gmail.com

Ann Arbor Reasonable Return (A2R2) https://a2reasonablereturn.org/

Back to School PA PAC, Pennsylvania, bethann@backtoschoolpa.com

Baltimore County Parent and Student Coalition, Maryland, mhttps:///www.baltimorecountyparentsandstudentcoalition.com

Bring Back MA, Massachusetts, https https://twitter.com/bringkidsbackMA

California Students United, California, https://www.calstudentsunited.org/

CA Parent Power, California, https://www.caparentpower.org/

Cambridge Coalition for Public Education, Cambridge, MA Cambridge Coalition for Public Education (wordpress.com)

Chicago Parents Collective, chicagoparentscollective@gmail.com

Children First North Carolina, North Carolina kellylrmann@gmail.com