WISE Mask Wearing K-3 Mandate

Dear WISE Parents,

Please review the below letter to WESE Board and kindly sign, if you agree that mask wearing for K-3 students in our school should be optional:

September 27, 2021

WESE Board

7211 96a Ave NW

Edmonton, AB T6B 1B5  

RE: Mask Wearing K-3

This letter is to request the reversal of Mask Wearing for K-3 decision made by WESE board, WISE faculty, and administration and re-establish it as optional. The email message sent to the parents on September 25th, 2021 stated that this new measure is necessary due to the recent wave of high COVID-19 transmission in the Edmonton Zone.

While we, as parents completely support taking precautions to not spread COVID-19, many parents consider mask wearing for younger children more harmful than the risk of transmitting the disease. Here is the list of key concerns:

• World Health Organization (WHO) established that proper mask management is required to ensure their effectiveness. The guideline states: “For any type of mask, appropriate use, storage and cleaning, or disposal are essential to ensure that they are as effective as possible and to avoid any increased risk of transmission”. Majority of younger children have difficulty properly managing their masks by dropping, adjusting and misplacing them. This leads to additional contaminants accumulation in addition to COVID-19 virus and increases the risk of both disease and transmission. In addition, frequent mask manipulation in children increases the risk of self-contamination due to unclean hands being more often by the nose and eyes than they would have been otherwise.

• Younger children breath faster and require more air intake than adults. Masks serve as a barrier in oxygen intake and, therefore, inhibit basic livelihood and development of children.

• Many children experience abundant flow of saliva and mucus, which soils the masks creating favorable conditions for harmful microorganisms to amplify.

• Younger children are still adjusting to school environment and many have a hard time feeling safe as well as communicating clearly with teachers and staff. Wearing a mask will further increase this difficulty in safety and communicating, causing adverse effects associated with going school.

There are many more points we can bring up and much research can be referenced. We are requesting that mask wearing for K-3 students is made optional. Parents who require more protection for their children need to have the right to use that extra protection. Similarly, parents who recognize that masks would bring more issues for their children than benefits, need to also have the right to not force their child wear a mask.

Sincerely,  

WISE Parents

WISE Parents    Contact the author of the petition