Continuing the outdoor mask mandate is utter garbage. The OUSD seems to be impervious to science. I’m not sure what the impetus for their decision was. Politics? Neurosis? Fashion? Time to end this performative gesture and allow a modicum of normalcy back into our children’s lives.
I’d like to voice my support to remove the mask mandate in OUSD schools for all grades in alignment with the county health department’s recommendations. There is clear data that masks have definitive negative impacts on kids ability to learn emotion recognition and speech and impedes their development. For those stakeholders who feel more comfortable in masks, then they have the choice to wear one, but those that are comfortable without masks should have that same choice.
Also, it seems incredibly irresponsible and arrogant for the school board members and the other stakeholders and unions to believe that they are more qualified to make this decision than the County Heath Officer and Health Dept. The school district should align with the county’s requirements that have been set according to science by our health professionals.
Echoing others here to say it’s time for our children to know it’s safe to breathe the fresh air without a mask. Particularly in outdoor settings, the masking is having long terms effects, the extract nature of which we cannot know until it’s too late to turn back. Let the kids be kids and not worry about coronavirus, since it is not the health emergency that spawned mask mandates to begin with. Thank you!
The science is in, it's time to get back to normal. Continuing to require masks makes you, the OUSD board, look really bad. It is just prolonging the disruption of normal life we and our kids are trying to get back. There is no good reason not to follow science, by delaying the path to normalcy you are prolonging the healthy development of our kids. Why? You are always being pushed over by your "labor"...and if you sit there wondering why students are leaving OUSD in droves...well...this would be another example of why. Today, OUSD has roughly 36,000-+ students with the same amount of administration as when it had 70,000-+ students. You are going to continue to lose students unless you fix your stuff in so many ways.
Enough is enough. You cannot let OEA obstruct public health policy and use our kids as bargaining chips. Removing masks from children's faces should not be up to OEA. Follow PH guidelines and remove the mask mandate! For once, stand up for the children and say NO to OEA!
OUSD has said for the last two years of the pandemic that they are "following the science."But the CDC says masks are not required for kids in schools, as well as CA and Alameda County Department of Public Health. What science are we waiting for? I'm not hopeful that masking will be removed indoors for students and teachers but there is absolutely no reason not to remove the wildly unnecessary masking mandate for outdoors facilities TONIGHT.
OUSD has said for the last two years of the pandemic that they are "following the science."But the CDC says masks are not required for kids in schools, as well as CA and Alameda County Department of Public Health. What science are we waiting for? I'm not hopeful that masking will be removed indoors for students and teachers but there is absolutely no reason not to remove the wildly unnecessary masking mandate for outdoors facilities TONIGHT.
The Child Care Licensing Program just announced today that they are lifting mask mandates in child care facilities/preschools on Mar 12. Now we have agreement from the state, the county, and the child care licensing program. OUSD, please make your decision tonight lift mask mandates after Mar 11!!! The school district has done a great job of implementing improved ventilation which likely is more effective than masks anyway. Vaccines are available for all. We're good to go!!
Please remove the OUTDOOR mask mandate this evening. I know the indoor issue is more complicated, etc... but the outdoor shouldn't be. I know our little kids need a mask break when running around on the yard, and the weather is heating up fast!
I'm a parent of two Thornhill Elementary students and am asking you to allow our children to go without masks in school. We have always sought to follow the science and the evidence is now overwhelmingly clear: kids are at very low risk from covid, vaccination rates are high in the school system and our community broadly, cases are low, and the costs of masking are now higher than the benefits. Please be leaders and help our kids return to the great emotional and psychological experience they need in school.
I'm writing to express my support for OUSD aligning with CDPH and ACDPH in making masks optional for kids. It is time for my kids to see their classmates smiles again. Thank you.
Re Masks: Can first make a plan of how to effectively remove mask mandates without classrooms shutting down? This district seems to have a habit now of making major decisions without any thoughtful plan in place on how to manage the consequences. We need to do this logically, keeping in mind that our priority is to keep kids in school and classrooms open. Under current rules, if 3 kids test positive for covid the classroom shuts down for 2 weeks. If one kid is positive and spends all day in a classroom without a mask, there is no question that at least 2 more will catch it. I'm ok with increasing my children's risk of catching covid from no one masking, but only if they can still attend school if they test positive but are not otherwise sick. But if we remove masks, we need to all be ok with having covid circulate in the classroom like a common cold and change the rules for keeping kids out as well, or we'll be back where we were in 2020 with no one attending school in person.
OUSD should lift all mask mandates now. The time when masks made a measurable difference in preventing covid transmission has passed. There is no evidence to support endless masking of children, and growing evidence of harms to their emotional and learning development. Please don’t let OEA use masking kids as a bargaining tool with the district. Just say no.
PLEASE make masking optional. It is time. Childhood is sooo short, our kids need to see the faces of their friends and teachers. Make a choice based on science and what you KNOW is the right choice, not for political reasons. All surrounding districts have announced their decision to end mask mandate. Oakland need to as well. Let’s not give parents any more reasons to consider leaving the district.
I want to echo other parents that the mask mandates needs to end. I hope OUSD follows the SCIENCE and guidance from the state in removing the mask mandates.
As a parent, and as an infectious diseases physician, I strongly urge OUSD to remove the mask mandate - both indoors and outdoors. I have been increasingly reassured by the steady decline in levels of COVID in our community and by the rise in our vaccination rates. We have come a long way in the last two years, and our children have made immeasurable sacrifices. I do not believe that school mask mandates are providing any significant benefit at this point, and there is simply no justifiable reason for OUSD to continue mask mandates while other local districts do not. Thank you.
Please consider removing the mask mandate from schools. Children deserve to learn and play in an environment where they can see each other’s faces, feel free from the physical irritation of masks and from the fear that they are only safe if they wear a mask. The community has done a great job in taking the pandemic seriously and doing everything necessary to reduce the risk. It is time to recognize we are in a much better place than we were 2 years ago and make masks optional. Thank you
As the father of 2 children at Hillcrest K-8, I urge the Board to honor the previously announced August 15 1st day school (Item V). This date was announced months ago. Changing now is unfair. Many families including mine made summer travel and camp plans based on that start date. My family has non-refundable plane tickets to visit family on the East Coast. Changing tickets is very expensive not to mention lost time with relatives. Summer plans need certainty and BOE disregards the needs of OUSD families who want to see their relatives after two years of pandemic. After travel disruption and cancelled and camps, we all just want a normal happy summer with camps and travel. The Board is suddenly interrupting our plans which is inconsiderate. Very few families know this vote is happening tonight. Out of respect for the families please post-pone this vote and take time to find out what families of OUSD want. Please delay the vote, or better honor the date you selected as Aug 15.
Please lift the mask mandates for OUSD students. Our children are asking us why they are the only ones still masking and there is no good answer. Please consider the many comments in support of lifting the mask mandates.
Continuing the outdoor mask mandate is utter garbage. The OUSD seems to be impervious to science. I’m not sure what the impetus for their decision was. Politics? Neurosis? Fashion? Time to end this performative gesture and allow a modicum of normalcy back into our children’s lives.
I’d like to voice my support to remove the mask mandate in OUSD schools for all grades in alignment with the county health department’s recommendations. There is clear data that masks have definitive negative impacts on kids ability to learn emotion recognition and speech and impedes their development. For those stakeholders who feel more comfortable in masks, then they have the choice to wear one, but those that are comfortable without masks should have that same choice.
Also, it seems incredibly irresponsible and arrogant for the school board members and the other stakeholders and unions to believe that they are more qualified to make this decision than the County Heath Officer and Health Dept. The school district should align with the county’s requirements that have been set according to science by our health professionals.
Echoing others here to say it’s time for our children to know it’s safe to breathe the fresh air without a mask. Particularly in outdoor settings, the masking is having long terms effects, the extract nature of which we cannot know until it’s too late to turn back. Let the kids be kids and not worry about coronavirus, since it is not the health emergency that spawned mask mandates to begin with. Thank you!
The science is in, it's time to get back to normal. Continuing to require masks makes you, the OUSD board, look really bad. It is just prolonging the disruption of normal life we and our kids are trying to get back. There is no good reason not to follow science, by delaying the path to normalcy you are prolonging the healthy development of our kids. Why? You are always being pushed over by your "labor"...and if you sit there wondering why students are leaving OUSD in droves...well...this would be another example of why. Today, OUSD has roughly 36,000-+ students with the same amount of administration as when it had 70,000-+ students. You are going to continue to lose students unless you fix your stuff in so many ways.
Enough is enough. You cannot let OEA obstruct public health policy and use our kids as bargaining chips. Removing masks from children's faces should not be up to OEA. Follow PH guidelines and remove the mask mandate! For once, stand up for the children and say NO to OEA!
OUSD has said for the last two years of the pandemic that they are "following the science."But the CDC says masks are not required for kids in schools, as well as CA and Alameda County Department of Public Health. What science are we waiting for? I'm not hopeful that masking will be removed indoors for students and teachers but there is absolutely no reason not to remove the wildly unnecessary masking mandate for outdoors facilities TONIGHT.
OUSD has said for the last two years of the pandemic that they are "following the science."But the CDC says masks are not required for kids in schools, as well as CA and Alameda County Department of Public Health. What science are we waiting for? I'm not hopeful that masking will be removed indoors for students and teachers but there is absolutely no reason not to remove the wildly unnecessary masking mandate for outdoors facilities TONIGHT.
The Child Care Licensing Program just announced today that they are lifting mask mandates in child care facilities/preschools on Mar 12. Now we have agreement from the state, the county, and the child care licensing program. OUSD, please make your decision tonight lift mask mandates after Mar 11!!! The school district has done a great job of implementing improved ventilation which likely is more effective than masks anyway. Vaccines are available for all. We're good to go!!
Please remove the OUTDOOR mask mandate this evening. I know the indoor issue is more complicated, etc... but the outdoor shouldn't be. I know our little kids need a mask break when running around on the yard, and the weather is heating up fast!
I'm a parent of two Thornhill Elementary students and am asking you to allow our children to go without masks in school. We have always sought to follow the science and the evidence is now overwhelmingly clear: kids are at very low risk from covid, vaccination rates are high in the school system and our community broadly, cases are low, and the costs of masking are now higher than the benefits. Please be leaders and help our kids return to the great emotional and psychological experience they need in school.
Please remove the outdoor mask mandate, thanks!
I'm writing to express my support for OUSD aligning with CDPH and ACDPH in making masks optional for kids. It is time for my kids to see their classmates smiles again. Thank you.
Re Masks: Can first make a plan of how to effectively remove mask mandates without classrooms shutting down? This district seems to have a habit now of making major decisions without any thoughtful plan in place on how to manage the consequences. We need to do this logically, keeping in mind that our priority is to keep kids in school and classrooms open. Under current rules, if 3 kids test positive for covid the classroom shuts down for 2 weeks. If one kid is positive and spends all day in a classroom without a mask, there is no question that at least 2 more will catch it. I'm ok with increasing my children's risk of catching covid from no one masking, but only if they can still attend school if they test positive but are not otherwise sick. But if we remove masks, we need to all be ok with having covid circulate in the classroom like a common cold and change the rules for keeping kids out as well, or we'll be back where we were in 2020 with no one attending school in person.
OUSD should lift all mask mandates now. The time when masks made a measurable difference in preventing covid transmission has passed. There is no evidence to support endless masking of children, and growing evidence of harms to their emotional and learning development. Please don’t let OEA use masking kids as a bargaining tool with the district. Just say no.
PLEASE make masking optional. It is time. Childhood is sooo short, our kids need to see the faces of their friends and teachers. Make a choice based on science and what you KNOW is the right choice, not for political reasons. All surrounding districts have announced their decision to end mask mandate. Oakland need to as well. Let’s not give parents any more reasons to consider leaving the district.
I want to echo other parents that the mask mandates needs to end. I hope OUSD follows the SCIENCE and guidance from the state in removing the mask mandates.
As a parent, and as an infectious diseases physician, I strongly urge OUSD to remove the mask mandate - both indoors and outdoors. I have been increasingly reassured by the steady decline in levels of COVID in our community and by the rise in our vaccination rates. We have come a long way in the last two years, and our children have made immeasurable sacrifices. I do not believe that school mask mandates are providing any significant benefit at this point, and there is simply no justifiable reason for OUSD to continue mask mandates while other local districts do not. Thank you.
Please consider removing the mask mandate from schools. Children deserve to learn and play in an environment where they can see each other’s faces, feel free from the physical irritation of masks and from the fear that they are only safe if they wear a mask. The community has done a great job in taking the pandemic seriously and doing everything necessary to reduce the risk. It is time to recognize we are in a much better place than we were 2 years ago and make masks optional. Thank you
As the father of 2 children at Hillcrest K-8, I urge the Board to honor the previously announced August 15 1st day school (Item V). This date was announced months ago. Changing now is unfair. Many families including mine made summer travel and camp plans based on that start date. My family has non-refundable plane tickets to visit family on the East Coast. Changing tickets is very expensive not to mention lost time with relatives. Summer plans need certainty and BOE disregards the needs of OUSD families who want to see their relatives after two years of pandemic. After travel disruption and cancelled and camps, we all just want a normal happy summer with camps and travel. The Board is suddenly interrupting our plans which is inconsiderate. Very few families know this vote is happening tonight. Out of respect for the families please post-pone this vote and take time to find out what families of OUSD want. Please delay the vote, or better honor the date you selected as Aug 15.
Please lift the mask mandates for OUSD students. Our children are asking us why they are the only ones still masking and there is no good answer. Please consider the many comments in support of lifting the mask mandates.