Seattle Education Association president Jennifer Matter said schools are rushing to remove their masks.
Despite orders from Washington State With the governor raising masks, Seattle schoolchildren may still have to wear face coverings until spring because the teachers’ union says they “bring normality” to the classroom.
“Future decisions about mask use in the county will be made in partnership with public health and implementation will be subject to consultation and mutually agreed guidelines to be reached through negotiations with our labor partners,” Seattle Public said in a statement. Schools.
Schools across the US will soon remove their masks as governors and mayors ease restrictions as infection rates drop, with a few notable exceptions.
On March 11, the rest of Washington State will be able to gather indoors at schools, restaurants, and other group venues. Democratic Governor Jay Inslee by decree because the seven-day infection rate dropped to 263, down 18 percent from a week earlier.
However, the teachers’ union, the Seattle Education Association, has stalled the plan, arguing that children are used to masks and will feel weird without them.
Washington Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee announced he would lift mask requirements across the state as infection rates plummeted.
Seattle Public Schools is telling parents that easing mask-wearing requirements in schools does not apply to their children due to the teachers’ union.
“Masks contribute to the sense of safety and normalcy that schools provide to our students,” the working group wrote in a letter. “Removing the masks will significantly disrupt this sense of normality, and it will be difficult for teachers to explain to students why we are removing the masks so quickly.”
The Seattle school system has acknowledged that the union handcuffed her and cannot move forward to lift the mask restriction.
The public school administration said they would have to “negotiate with the Seattle Education Association, as required by the current collective agreement, in order to come to a mutually acceptable position regarding any permanent changes to the requirements for the use of masks throughout the district.”
Seattle entrepreneur Steve March tweeted to denounce the union’s seemingly arbitrary stance outlined in their letter.
“Letter from the Seattle Teachers Union calling for all 56,000 K-12 students to wear masks until at least May 1st,” he wrote on social media. “This is despite recommendations from the state health department. They do not cite any research that shows that the mask affects the outcome. Follow science or not?
Teachers union president Jennifer Matter told NPR: “We think there should be no rush to end the mask mandate.”
“We have immunocompromised people, we have educators who are pregnant, we have educators who have children of their own under the age of 5 who cannot be vaccinated,” she told a public radio station.
According to the Matter union letter, part of the argument for wearing masks on students is that it will be difficult for teachers to explain policies to children.
The working group also says that many children are not vaccinated.
“A large number of children under the age of 12 remain unvaccinated, with a disproportionate number of those living in our more socially and economically diverse communities. It is important that with the change in disguise, the voices of those most vulnerable to COVID, both educators and students, be heard,” according to a letter from the teachers union.
According to the Washington State Department of Health, 12 percent of students aged 10 to 19 are vaccinated, and 16 percent of children aged 5 to 10 are vaccinated. Children under 5 years of age are not eligible for vaccination.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that children ages five and under will still be required to cover up at daycare, PreK and ThreeK facilities.
The New York parent group is citing the World Health Organization’s recommendation that children in this age group do not need masks.
“These mandates are simply anti-scientific, anti-parental and anti-child, they are against the law,” lawyer and father of three-year-old daughter Michael Chessa told the Daily Mail.
One parent tweeted a picture of her young son saying his own prayer on his mask.
New York parents hit back at school masks for children under 5
New York Parents of children under five vehemently denounce rules forcing their toddlers to wear masks when the rest of the city is free of COVID-19 restrictions.
On Wednesday, Mayor Eric Adams announced that Big Apple Public Schools students ages five and older would no longer be required to wear protective masks as the city’s infection rate dropped to 671 cases a day. This is 11.6% less than a week earlier, and only 1.8% of all tests are now positive.
Mayor Eric Adams confirmed last Wednesday that the United States’ most populous city will revoke its mandates requiring masks for public school children as young as five and proof of vaccination to dine or enter entertainment venues.
The only exception to this rule will be children under the age of five, who are currently not eligible for vaccinations, and day care workers will also be required to wear face masks. This comes despite the fact that just 307 children aged 0 to 4 have died from COVID in the entire US since the pandemic began in the spring of 2020, according to the latest data. CDC data.
The school’s positivity rate is 0.18 percent, Adams said Friday. Since then, thousands have signed Petition on Change.org targeting a seemingly endless rule.
It contains a letter addressed to New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett and links to articles supporting the petition’s point of view.
The authors write: “The national conversation about mandatory mask-wearing is currently shifting towards recognition of the developmental, mental and social harm that this policy is doing to children right now.”
Angry New York City parents and children flooded City Hall Park on Monday morning – the first day children over five are allowed to take off their masks – demanding that children under five be given the same freedom.
About a dozen parents from all five boroughs will also argue in court that the city should pass legislation justifying the need to continue to require such a “harmful” mandate. New York Daily News reported.