Our school board doesn’t care, but maybe you do.
Last night, I wrote an email (below) to our school board and superintendent to make a plea for an at least temporary reinstatement of a mask requirement in light of Omicron. On one hand, I had little hope that they would care or make any adjustments based on what I might say. On the other hand, speaking up lets me feel like I’ve done something (which feels better than nothing) — if only by crying out in the wilderness. I did my best to include compelling data, hoping to appeal to our leaders’ sense of public responsibility and care for students. I crafted and cited email with reliable sources, and I’d like to think my high school English teacher would be proud.
In response to my effort, the superintendent replied, “We, along with four other Hendricks County school corporations opened today with mask optional. It is our intent to move forward under that condition.” That was it.
Let us pray.
Loving God, protect your people whose health is compromised by complex medical conditions, disabilities, chronic stress, and pregnancy — especially those whose lives are put at greater risk by organizational policies that actively hurt them. Protect healthy people, too — please keep more from showing up to fill hospital beds— especially pregnant ones! And please dear God, help those who can’t get admitted for timely care because EDs are overflowing and hospitals are all on diversion. Grant resources to those who need them to source expensive and hard-to-find personal protective equipment like N95s to minimize their risks of contracting Covid in high-risk environments. Help our industries fulfill supply requests so that people can get tested when they need to, and so our hospitals stop running into rationing problems with critical supplies. Bless our underpaid educators for their toil, and grant them health, wisdom, and passion in caring for themselves and for our youth. And, mercy! God bless and protect our healthcare workers who are exhausted from working overtime and picking up extra shifts because we do not have enough staff to cope with the high demands and heartbreaking drain this pandemic has put upon our hospitals. Grant them a safe working environment, and help the public respond with a sense of collective pride and “we are all in this together” hearts so frontline workers can thrive in their own lives and don’t give up on humanity! Touch the hearts of leaders, and help them act with grace and courage for the health and wellbeing of the people in their care. Touch our hearts in ways we don’t know we need to be touched yet…
For what else shall we pray?
Our school board doesn’t care, but maybe you do. Emailed on 1/3/2022. Feel free to use & adapt. Better ideas? Tell me please. In the meantime, please vaccinate, boost, and wear a mask.
“Dear Dr. ___ and members of the board:
Hendricks County is currently at a red advisory status for Covid spread with over 384 cases per 100,000 residents. Our three biggest hospital systems are pleading with the public to do our part to reduce the community spread of Covid because our systems cannot cope. When hospitals are at or past capacity, people risk not getting care they need & deserve, whether that might be for Covid, an accident, a heart attack, stroke, or other serious illness. One of the things that kids learn in schools is how to be responsible members of a community and keep each other safe. ____ has a responsibility to lead.
ISDH advises that “the safest and most consistent guidance for the school environment is to have everyone consistently and correctly masked.” Hendricks County Health Department stands by ISDH and CDC recommendations.
Omicron is more contagious among children, and the reality is that when “we’ve seen numbers go up, we’ve seen hospitalizations in kids go up.” Notably, “Ohio has seen a 125% increase in hospitalizations among children 17 and under in the past four weeks, …”
Prevention is the best course of action when it comes to this disease. Data (still) shows that masks limit the spread of disease and maximize time in the classroom: “In the two largest Arizona counties, with variable K-12 school masking policies at the onset of the 2021–22 academic year, the odds of a school-associated COVID-19 outbreak were 3.5 times higher in schools with no mask requirement than in those with a mask requirement implemented at the time school started.”
Unfortunately, without a mask mandate, ___ risk factors will be extremely high when students return tomorrow after long holidays with family, friends, and travels. Students will converge in hallways, classrooms, gyms, and locker rooms — some masked, many not. This situation opens the door to extremely predictable outcomes. Absent a mandate, ___ risks becoming the root cause of rapid spread in our community.
Dealing with disease is always more difficult than preventing it. Also, rapid tests are extremely hard to find, and I’m concerned that will impair tracking & tracing.
We know how this pandemic works. The spread of Omicron will lead to kids missing more school, and it will lead to repercussions for family members who get sick, miss work, or worse. Kids & families with underlying health conditions and disabilities are at greater risk of serious illness and death. ___ still has the power to prevent the spread of this disease (and its corresponding hospitalizations, economic losses, educational losses, and deaths), or fuel it.
[Neighboring school] reinstated masks a while back. What will [you] do?”
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” — Benjamin Franklin
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” — Viktor Frankl
