We had our child at this school for preschool in 2021 because they promised parents that preschoolers would not be forced to wear masks. During orientation, the lead teacher even explained to the more sheepish parents that masks hurt childhood education since so much communication and trust at that age is depends on facial expressions.
2 weeks after the start of the school year the administration flip flopped and started requiring masks - for toddlers. It gets worse - they said the masks would have to stay on 100% of the day, even when playing outsid, and nap time.
Their stated reason for the sudden 180 2 weeks into the school year: "This Delta variant came out of nowhere."
1. Viruses mutate, that's normal and expected, not out of nowhere. Had they never heard of the Flu before?
2. There was at the time and still remains no scientific proof that masks have any impact on reducing Covid. Study after study, chart after chart. Sweden never locked down, never masked, never stopped schools, and not a single death in 1.8million kids and the country as a whole did far better than many of its European neighbors who had strict voodoo in place to try and stop a mild, easily treatable, respiratory infection. But Sweden is far away and likely hard for these brilliant school admins to understand so why didn't they look at neighboring Yavapai county before punishing vulnerable 2 year olds? Yavapai had no mask requirements and little voluntary compliance unlike 90%+ in Coconino, Yavapai has a larger and more urban population, and the average age there is about 20+ years older. And yet, Yavapai had a lower death and case rate.
We've now learned it's unrealistic to expect educators to apply science and ethics to their mandates over children (in addition to keeping their promises to parents).
3. Expecting a 2 year old to keep a mask on for 8 hours demonstrated these people don't know much about what's developmentally appropriate for 2 year olds.
We pulled our kid instantly and have been in a much better and saner school since. read more