L.A. Schools Will Require Non-Cloth Masks (Even for Sports) and Vaccination Next YearSchool choice is the best alternative for parents who are reasonably frustrated with this insanity.
By Robby Soave
January 25, 2022
Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is about to get even stricter with its COVID-19 mitigation requirements: The country's second-largest public school district will force students to wear non-cloth masks that have a nose wire, even while they are outside or playing sports.
L.A. is also slated to add a vaccination requirement for all students, which will take effect January 1, 2023.
The district's mask policy was updated on its website late last week. It states that "masking will be required at all times, indoors and outdoors. It is required that all students wear well-fitting, non-cloth masks with a nose wire." Staff will have to wear surgical grade masks.
The policy includes no exceptions—and no acknowledgment that masks have proven to be disruptive to various educational, social, and physical activities. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has admitted that masks could make it more difficult for young children to learn how to read. Several months ago, the CDC quietly revised its masking guidance and encouraged schools to let these students wear cloth masks, or even transparent masks.
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The proper solution is school choice: Parents who do not agree with these policies should be able take whatever public funding is budgeted for their kids and invest in an educational option that aligns with their needs. For some families, that could even be a school setting that follows stricter COVID-19 mitigation policies. But the decision should belong to families, not the government.
This week happens to be National School Choice Week, but the public education system's utter failure to handle the COVID-19 pandemic in a manner that allows kids to actually attend school has provided a two-year-long example of why this policy change is desperately needed. If parents want to vaccinate their kids, they should do it. If they want to send their kids to schools that require masks, they should do that as well. But the millions of parents who want to make a different choice have rights, too.
Source:
https://reason.com/2022/01/25/la-schools-non-cloth-masks-vaccine-mandate/
