By Tommy Acosta
Sedona News (August 2,2021) Here in Sedona, mask wearing in school will be optional, for teachers, staff and students as well, giving the parents the choice to mask their children or not.
What a trip. This means there will be two distinct classes of students — those who are masked and those who are not.
I wonder how the students will react to this? Will the unmasked kids feel empowered and fare better in their studies because they will be getting more oxygen?
Will the masked student feel less empowered by the forced wearing of masks for hours on end in the classrooms?
What about sports? Will unmasked student have a physical advantage over the masked students because their breathing will not be impeded by the cloth masks?
And who will enforce mask wearing with the kids whose parents want them to wear them?
Will teachers get a list of the students who have to wear masks in school? Will the teachers have to enforce the wishes of the parents?
What happens if the kids being forced to wear masks by their parents just take them off the second they are in school where their parents cannot see them or regulate their behavior?
I just don’t know. I think if I was in school, I would not like to be burdened with a mask while the other kids don’t have to wear them, no matter what my parents say.
Will the masked students be segregated from the unmasked students? Will they form clicks and self-segregate without the teachers having to divide them?
Maybe the classrooms could be split into sections, with the masked sitting on one side of the classroom and the unmasked on the other.
What a predicament.
It’s obvious that parents who don’t want their kids wearing masks are disobeying Dr. Fauci, the Administration and the CDC. They are going against the grain and directions of authority: and their kids now are as well.
Will those who rebel against authority be pitted against those who obey?
Man, I would hate to be a parent right now. I know what I would do but what about parents who are on the fence?
There are so many parents out there on the fence and they get mixed messages from everywhere and they don’t know what to do.
I can’t imagine the psychological damage the kids forced to wear mask will suffer because it appears that most parents will probably choose to send their kids unmasked to school.
The kids wearing masks will stick out like sore thumbs and they might even inspire derision in the unmasked student population.
These poor kids. We are creating two distinct classes of students in school. It’s like a new form of color-blind segregation because that is what is going to happen.
Think of the unmasked kids smiling, joking, communicating with each other, shunning the kids who are forced to wear masks.
Being able to read someone’s entire face is essential to human communication and contact. We need to look at peoples’ mouths and lips to know if they are smiling or not.
What happens to those students who can only show half a face? Time will tell.
5 Comments
Mr. Acosta. My child will be wearing her mask every day she is in school. She understand the importance of social distancing and masking. We believe in Dr. Fauci and we will follow the CDC guidelines until they are changed. I would rather have my child “sticking out like a sore thumb” than dead from Covid. Thank you.
Such pontificating!!!! Wow!!!! My child is not being “obedient” – she is being intelligent. As a parent, we have discussed the importance of staying safe and protecting ourselves and others, especially with the Delta variant on the rise. We have listened to science and scientists, to health care workers as well as observed the current state of affairs at hospitals. And guess what – my daughter is capable of smiling, laughing, communicating and enjoying her friends with a mask on. If a child is “shunning” another student for wearing a mask, that indicates a PARENTING problem and/or a PERSONALITY problem, not a mask problem. There is no need to further politicize this health crisis, especially with kids. It is evident that those who are currently getting gravely ill and dying are those who believe the politics, not the science. It’s a shame how much of the wellness community here has fallen into the qAnonsense hole. Recently, a friend of mine lost his mother (no comorbidities and perfectly health until she wasn’t) who thought her immune system would protect her from Covid. It didn’t and she died after weeks in the hospital. It is incredibly difficult to see the smiles of children whose faces are behind ventilator masks or, worse yet, the lids of coffins. And there are already two classes of students in this town – and that has NOTHING to do with masks.
Nobody enjoys wearing a mask. Masks are inconvenient and uncomfortable, but I just don’t get how they became the poster child for government overreach and the loss of personal freedom. I think whether or not to get a vaccine that is not yet fully FDA approved is a personal choice (I got my 2 doses and I’m still alive), but wearing a suitable face covering at school seems like a reasonable and responsible thing to do when it’s obvious that this virus is not going to go away as long as we continue to let it spread and mutate. Pretending everything is back to normal isn’t working, and hypothesizing that masked kids will be subjected to a “face off” with their unmasked peers is really unhelpful.
Tommy may be right about one thing. As I was waiting to pick up my daughter from school I caught her putting her mask back on as she was coming out. There needs to be someone in the school making sure whoever is supposed to be wearing one, wears one when inside. I had another long talk with her about the necessity. She agreed but kids will be kids and we always have to be on guard.
My child will NOT be wearing a worthless mask nor be taking an experimental and potentially harmful vaccine, nor will we submit to anymore lockdowns.
And I don’t want to hear another word about it until the GD border is closed!