What are we doing to our kids over masks?

This fight is not only disrupting the return to school, but also demonstrating behavior we teach them to avoid.

What are we doing to our children?

This tug-of-war over masking is not only disrupting children’s return to school but is also demonstrating confrontation and fighting that we teach them to avoid.

Before this week, the mask and anti-mask factions have clashed mostly in school board meetings or on their own social media accounts. Anti-mask protesters have argued publicly with school board members and administrators, and some of those board members have shut down debate.

There has been bullying, name-calling and taking the ball and going home, all by the adults in the room.

The debate, as we all know by now, centers on whether government — including local school boards — should require children to wear masks in the classroom to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Many area districts were prepared to start the new school year making masks optional for students despite some pressure from parents to mandate universal masking as protection against COVID and the highly contagious delta variant that has ramped up spread of the disease. Of particular concern are children under 12 who are not eligible for vaccination.

As case numbers continued to climb in Pennsylvania, health officials issued recommendations that schools make masks mandatory, and on Aug. 31, just as schools began reopening, Gov. Tom Wolf issued a public health order requiring masks beginning Sept. 7.

Wolf said safety measures are necessary to keep students in the classroom after school closings that came with the onset of the COVID pandemic in March, 2020 and lasted through the end of the 2020-21 school year.

For their part, anti-masking proponents say masks stifle breathing and affect a child’s self-esteem and comfort level.

They also say that it is a basic right of parents to determine health-care and prevention protocols for their children, and masking is an unproven experiment being forced on them without proof that masks work.

This week as the state mandate took effect and kids headed back to classrooms, several unwelcome incidents occurred, bringing police to the Oley Valley School District in Berks County and closing Norristown Area High School after a phoned threat to the building. It was not revealed whether the Norristown threat mentioned masking or other COVID mitigation measures, but in Oley, police revealed the language of a Montgomery County man’s Facebook account that prompted the police response.

The man encouraged violence against the district in reaction to the planned enforcement of the mandate. “I’m begging ALL ARMED US CITIZENS TO TAKE CARE OF THESE PEOPLE IMMEDIATELY,” his lengthy post began. “Target anyone mandating, complying with or enforcing these sick crimes against all of humanity.”

Norristown Area School District Superintendent Christopher Dormer called Wednesday’s events an “utter disruption to the lives of 2,000 people,” adding that if authorities “can identify the responsible parties, we want to make sure that they’re held accountable, [and] also to deter something like this from happening again.”

“We have the gift of 180 days a year, and because of someone’s actions one was wasted today,” Dormer said.

These threats against public schools are abhorrent. Schools represent much more than the places where children attend class — they are the social fabric of children’s lives. They are where friendships begin and where kids learn to get along with others and become part of society. In many cases, schools provide stability, meals, and help not available at home.

The anger generated in threats, confrontations and the spread of false information and inflammatory social media posts will affect children, making them feel less safe regardless of face coverings.

In the spirit of protecting children and providing a safe environment in which to thrive, let’s stop being guided by left or right leaning philosophy.

Be guided by common sense and care.

What are we doing to our children? In this atmosphere of contention, more harm than good.