Dear Principal,

These are difficult times and I know you’ve received a tremendous amount of impolite pushback against mandatory masks.  I want you to know that there are many in the community who support your actions in this matter.  Children are priceless and any action that avoids even one unnecessary death is warranted.  Protecting our youth and heroic educators is paramount.  Thank you for your compassion and caring stewardship of our youth.

As a supporter of mandatory masks, I have a few proposals for the school.

• ·      Masks must always be worn indoors, on school grounds, in the faculty lounge, and on school buses by administrators, faculty, teacher aides, janitorial staff, visitors, students, bus drivers, and grounds keepers.
• ·      Masks must be N95 respirators or professional-grade surgical masks.
• ·      Surgical mask must be changed every two hours.
• ·      On entering school, a monitor must check students wearing surgical masks to verify that they have four masks on their person.
• ·      To isolate mask changers from other students, a monitored, dedicated room must be established for changing masks after the two-hour limit.
• ·      Since hundreds of contaminated masks must be disposed of daily, the school must contract for daily removal by a certified hazardous waste disposal company.
• ·      All removed masks must be deposited in a sealed trash container equipped with a foot lever.
• ·      Trash cans, bathrooms, and school grounds will be constantly surveilled for improperly discarded masks.
• ·      No mask breaks allowed because they weaken discipline and defeat the entire purpose of the protective measures.
• ·      Children choosing to eat lunch must wear a face shield to be positioned in place prior to the removal of the mask.
• ·      Parents should be instructed to pack lunchboxes with finger food that can fit under the shield without lifting.
• ·      Paper straws for drinks must be disposed of as hazardous material.
• ·      Teacher aides should assist in mask discipline, and volunteers must be restricted to ardent mask supporters.
• ·      Teacher aides must sign a daily affidavit that for the previous twenty-four hours they have worn a mask at all times when outside their domicile and to their knowledge have not come in proximity with an individual who tested positive for Covid-19.
• ·      Teacher aides cannot bring purses or used masks onto school grounds.
• ·      All school employees and volunteers must begin the day with a surgical scrub.
• ·      Faculty bathrooms must be monitored to ensure compliance with AST standards for scrubs by all adult personnel on school grounds.
• ·      All cell phones that leave school grounds must, on return, be sanitized with ultraviolet light.

Needless to say, social distancing must also be maintained at all times by all persons on school property. This is a hurried and incomplete list, but I was in a rush to get this to you as soon as possible. I will pull together a group of concerned parents to work on this further.

Thank you for your compassionate leadership and we will get back to you soon with further safeguards against this deadly virus.

We are all in this together.

Karen

P.S. Have you thought about how to sanitize donations to the annual auction? Maybe I should have my committee work on that as well.

Photo credit: Pexels

James D. Best, author of Tempest at Dawn, a novel about the 1787 Constitutional Convention, and the Steve Dancy Tales.