Schools should be allowed to mandate masks; research shows they work
I am writing to oppose efforts to limit the ability of schools to require masks, such as Senate Bill 209, introduced in the Ohio Senate last month.
Research has confirmed that masks are an important tool that helps reduce the risk of in-school transmission of COVID-19.
Particularly in light of the rise of the delta variant, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics are recommending that all K-12 students wear masks in school buildings, regardless of vaccination status.
Some individual pediatricians go as far as suggesting that schools should mandate masking, to ensure that mask use is universal and consistent, and so that students who choose to follow guidelines do not face stigma for doing so.
Some school districts, including the district in which my family lives, are choosing to make maskwearing optional, a primary reason we have enrolled our child in a virtual charter school instead of our neighborhood school.
But schools that would seek to use a proven mitigation strategy should not be prevented from doing so. Candyce Fujita, Marysville