This petition urging MPS to extend our mask mandate in school buildings is up to 120 signatures. Wanted to share again in case anyone hasn’t seen it and wants to sign. I’d also appreciate it if you’d consider sharing! Thank you! Cristina Reale McGorty shared a link.on another site
https://www.change.org/.../superintendent-maurice-edouard... Cristina McGorty started this petition to Superintendent Maurice Edouard-Vincent and 4 others
Cristina McGorty started this petition to Superintendent Maurice Edouard-Vincent and
Dear Superintendent Dr. Edouard-Vincent, Medford School Committee, Mayor Lungo-Koehn, Assistant Superintendent Ms. Galusi, Ms. Hines, Ms. O'Connor, and Mr. Murphy:
I am writing to you today to advocate for the health and safety of all students and staff of our Medford Public Schools. Since the beginning of this pandemic,
Medford has taken a safe, cautious approach, which is reflected in our extremely rare instances of inter-school spread.
You have followed the science and listened to the experts, making the health and safety of students and staff the top priority. I urge you to continue in this spirit by keeping the mask mandate in our public schools in place beyond the current extension date of March 14th.
Last fall, DESE set a vaccination rate threshold, as follows: "If a school demonstrates a vaccination rate of 80 percent or more of all students and staff ... then the mask requirement would no longer be in effect for that school building". Setting this 80% threshold for MPS will give us a measurable goal to achieve before lifting our mask mandate. An 80% threshold feels sound since it lines up with the goal of achieving herd immunity. Looking at the most recent data of vaccinated students in MPS, we have not hit that goal yet, so removing the mask mandate now just because DESE will be lifting their requirements feels premature. The district should continue offering vaccine clinics, promoting them well, and monitoring our vaccination rates. This data should also be shared with the public, so we all know where we stand. I propose that Medford should not consider lifting the mask mandate until we hit, or come very close, to out that target.
Unmasking prematurely will likely lead to students and staff catching and spreading COVID-19 while in our school buildings. Though vaccinated students have some protection from getting seriously ill, we know that we have many unvaccinated students who will be put at risk. It is important to note that almost every school building in Medford includes a PreK program, as well as a daycare program at the high school, and none of those students are able to be vaccinated yet. We have seen with Omicron, that even vaccinated individuals can catch and infect others. Removing the mask mandate too soon will not only put the students and staff at risk, but also anyone in their household and/or family unit. The biggest concern being the serious risk for their family members who are medically fragile, elderly, or too young to get vaccinated. We also cannot minimize the long-term concerns for children catching COVID-19, such as an increased risk of diabetes. Diabetes is a serious life-long disease, and I strongly believe that our children deserve that we continue to protect them from this risk.
Governor Baker said in his statement last week that we have seen that schools are safe. I argue that the reason schools have been safe is because of all the preventative measures we have had in place. Medford Public Schools have felt particularly safe due to the specific measures we have had in place. We are now facing some major changes in the COVID-10 prevention practices and protocols with the end of the close contact tracing program in schools, and with our successful surveillance testing program coming to an end in March. With these changes happening right now, it would seem wise to wait and see how things go before making any other changes. I know you mentioned that you will monitor the case numbers over the next month, but we need to take into account that the data collected after our in-school surveillance testing program ends cannot be held in the same regard as the data collected from our in-school PCR testing. Due to several factors, the case numbers reported from at-home rapid tests will not be as accurate as the numbers currently reported.
I do understand the reasons for the upcoming changes in our preventative procedures as they were unsustainable for our nursing staff and for Tufts University. However, we have all seen firsthand that students, for the most part, are willing and able to wear their masks at school. We know that masks have helped stop the spread. We know that masks keep us safe. There is really no reason to remove the mask mandate at this time. Of course, we will not be wearing masks forever, but ending the mask mandate next month would be too rash as we are just getting out of a surge. Though we are coming down from the Omicron surge, we should also wait a while longer to see what happens with BA.2 and subsequent variants. Catching up from the next surge is less effective than preventing it. I urge you to listen to the director of the CDC when she says that now is not the moment to drop mask mandates.
Baker says it is time to return to normalcy for our students. This statement does not take into account that wearing masks is normal for our students at this point in time. They have been doing it for two years now. Some have never even been in a school building unmasked. All these changes have taken a toll on the emotional well-being of our students. These decisions do not exist in a vacuum. They have an impact on those involved. Each transition will be difficult for them to process and adjust to. We also need to think of our teachers and staff putting their health on the line every day going into schools. Removing the mask mandate removes the safety net they have relied on for so long. Please take all of this into account with your decisions.
In summary, I encourage those who have the power to use this privilege to prioritize the health and safety of MPS students and staff safe by keeping our mask mandate in place until we have achieved vaccination rates approaching 80% in all our school buildings, everyone has had time to opt-into and get used to the new procedures for testing and contact tracing, we have solid participation data and test results to see how successful our new prevention protocols are, we have had ample time to keep an eye on the positivity rate in Medford and Massachusetts to look for any possible upticks in cases, and we have a proactive plan in how on to help address the anxiety that some students will experience when facing the end of the school mask mandate.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
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