“How are we going to get the kids to keep their masks on?”

Dear Superintendent Bouquillon,

Thank you for holding the virtual town meeting for parents last night. I very much appreciated your efforts to answer as many of the over 250 questions as possible. These are very difficult choices ahead for us as parents and you helped.

I was, however, very disappointed with the answer to my question “how are we going to get the kids to keep their masks on?” You said, if I recall correctly, that it hadn’t been a problem in summer school, and if it becomes a problem this fall we’ll deal with it.

My understanding is that the science says that wearing good masks properly is by far the most effective way to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

I feel like my question was a softball and I would have been reassured by almost anything.

You could have said “staff and faculty will be modeling consistent mask wearing and there will be signs in the halls and announcements every day” and it would have at least told me that you were going to make an effort. I really hope that you will be doing at least this much.

You could have said “staff and faculty will carry clipboards and write down the names of kids who are not wearing masks when they’re supposed to and three strikes and they’re remote-only for the next month.” I know these kids really want to come back, so from that I would have felt some real hope that I could expect some consistent mask wearing.

Instead, I am drawn to the following conclusions:

1) There is no plan in place to help kids make the best possible choices about wearing masks;

2) There is no plan to establish consequences for not wearing masks;

3) As a parent I need to assume that when my kid is in school she is going to be in close proximity to a significant number of other kids who are not consistently wearing masks.

It’s not too late! You can still decide that it’s more important for the kids in the school to be wearing masks than to assume that because 93% of parents said they wanted their kids back in school, we’re already bought in that the benefits outweigh the risks.

Please save some lives and reconsider putting more of a plan in place. Or, if I have misunderstood and there is a plan in place, please help me understand.

Sincerely,

David Coletta

Parent of Lucy Coletta ‘21