Making the Case for Masking in Schools Is Difficult & Necessary (by Peter Witzler & Keir Bickerstaffe)
This week, two members of our Little Lobbyists community launched a drive to stop the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) in Maryland from dropping their school mask mandate. Despite excellent organizing efforts and heart-felt testimony, including a petition that captured over 600 signatures in a week, the county Board of Education still voted to drop the mandate.
What can we learn from this? That we cannot become discouraged when our efforts fall flat. As the great Congressman John Lewis said, "Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble."
The Witzler family {image description: A family with light skin poses on a bridge across a mountain gorge—a waterfall and trees with leaves turning yellow and orange are in the background. Directly behind the family is a railing with wood cross-beams and black metal staves. The mother and father pose with their two children in between.]
Here’s Peter Witzler’s assessment:
“As a union guy, one of my core values is ‘an injury to one, is an injury to all.’ I also believe that we all do better when we take care of each other. At the end of the day, this was a political decision pushed from the top down: from the CDC, from the Maryland State Board of Education on down to the County Board of Education. It was a political decision that discounted and disregarded the lives of families like mine, forcing the burden fully onto the individual, and absolving the larger community of any responsibility. Politics and policy is a statement of values. And these were not my values.”
Here are some excerpts from Peter and Keir’s testimony that might make good talking points as you deal with your own school systems:
Peter:
“I am here to ask you to support the kind and compassionate policy choice of universal masking that our community needs right now–and preserve our children’s rights to an education. My son Jackson is one of the millions of Americans who are at higher risk for severe complications and death from COVID-19.
“I want to tell you a little about Jackson: He is an amazing 6-year-old, 1st-grade student who was thrilled to be able to return to in-person learning in January once he was vaccinated. He actually cried when MCPS announced a snow day, because he would rather have started in- person. He was also born with Spina Bifida and is immunocompromised.
“Your decision today could force my family to make an impossible choice to risk Jackson's educational progress or knowingly send him to an unsafe learning environment. Removing universal masking would violate Jackson’s and other students' rights to a free and appropriate education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
“When removing mask mandates in public schools, what are your plans for preventing the segregation of special education students? We don’t want Jackson to be relegated to a separate classroom simply because he needs to mask. He deserves full access to safe, in-person education as well. What are your plans for keeping special education students medically safe? Will MCPS require COVID-19 vaccinations for all students, faculty & staff, just as it requires other vaccinations now?
Keir:
Keir and his daughter [image description: A father with light skin and short red hair, mustache and beard, poses with his daughter, who has light skin and black hair pulled back away from her face. She is giving a thumbs-up sign and smiling with her tongue curled out to one edge of her lips. The dad has a big, open-mouthed grin. They are posed in a family home with white and yellow walls.]
“My 7-year-old daughter is typical in so many ways -- she enjoys watching PBSKids and playing Minecraft with her brother. She was also born with chronic medical conditions affecting her airway, lungs, heart, and kidneys, and is one of the millions of people in this country who are immunocompromised and at higher risk of severe disease or death as a result of COVID.
“Let us remember that while masks provide some level of protection to the mask wearer, the primary benefit of universal masking is in the protection it provides to others. That is why my daughter's doctors have advised, in determining whether it would be safe for her to return to school, that a primary consideration would be the degree to which others around her are masked.
“I promise you, nobody wants this pandemic to be over more than immunocompromised people and their families. We have borne the brunt of this pandemic in terms of mitigating risk and isolating ourselves. But while many may be ready to declare themselves ‘done’ with the pandemic, immunocompromised children do not have that luxury. Not yet. We need the help of our community to keep immunocompromised children safe.
“I appreciate that this is a difficult issue with strong feelings. For me, it's relatively simple. If schools maintain masking, as they have done all year, my daughter can return to school -- a place that she LOVES -- safely. If universal masking is eliminated, she can't. My daughter's education matters. Her inclusion matters. And I ask that you consider that as you vote today.”
Peter Witzler and Keir Bickerstaffe are members of Little Lobbyists. They live in Maryland.