Letter: End Mandatory Masking In Fairfield Schools

To whom it may concern:

On July 27, the CDC released a recommendation for masks to continue in schools K-12, and in response, Gov. Lamont’s communications voiced the possibility of this decision being made locally.

In light of this, we are asking that Superintendent Mike Cummings, Sands Cleary, and state and local leadership consider all aspects of our students’ wellbeing. After watching our children suffer physically and/or emotionally as a result of wearing masks, a significant number of families in Fairfield have voiced their opposition to mandatory masking in school for the upcoming 2021-22 school year. We recognize that some families report that their children are unaffected by masking. This highlights the wide spectrum of experiences across the approximately 4,000 families in Fairfield Public Schools, rendering the issuance of stark rules challenging. We understand that challenge and are therefore asking for choice instead of mandates.

Masking is clearly a hot-button topic. Much of the available evidence indicating effectiveness seems to come from either a collection of laboratory studies that do not represent the reality of what child mask use looks like 6.5 hours a day at school, or from studies of mitigation measures in different school districts that had no control group without masking. We hear “there was no flu this year” as rationale, yet the flu disappeared all over the world, even in places where masking was not as ubiquitous of a practice. We have seen varying use of masks as required mitigation in schools in Europe, and now in our own country, and still no clear connection to COVID outcomes. Experts in the fields of medicine, virology, psychology and industrial hygiene all have varying opinions of the benefit of children wearing cloth masks vs. not. This is why we are seeking a more nuanced approach where families are allowed to perform their own cost-benefit analysis based on empirical evidence and experience, and for our community to be supportive of everyone’s choice.

While we will continue to learn about SARS-CoV-2 for years to come, we know much more than we did last year. Most importantly, we have seen the extremely low susceptibility of children to severe illness throughout the entirety of the pandemic. For those whose children and families have been tragically impacted by this virus or may be in the future, they are right to be more risk averse. But for those parents who no longer support masks on our children due to the harms we have seen with our own eyes, harms that do not require expert validation, as we are living and breathing them every day, we should also have a right to assess our own risk tolerance.

Over and over again, families that are advocating for this choice have been accused of being politically motivated. We have been told that we have more of an issue with masks than our children do. That we are anti-vax. That we are anti-science. We want to dispel these myths. This group of families is politically diverse with our most vocal advocates coming from both sides of the aisle. While many of our children are indeed mask compliant, we do not mistake compliance for contentment. We recognize that children know they are valued both at home and at school for obedience. Young children have a strong desire to please the adults in their lives. We recognize that what a child can tolerate is not an accurate barometer for benefit.

We are mothers, fathers, grandparents, whole families. We are well-meaning neighbors who are concerned with what we see happening to children around town. We are not activists. We do not shun the vaccine, as many, if not most of us are fully vaccinated adults. We do not distrust public health experts but ask that our advisers be diverse and qualified. We are simply families and residents who are asking our school and town officials for choice with regard to what we feel presents the most risk to our children and how to protect them from those risks.

Signed,

Concerned Families of Fairfield

Susan Aitkin

Krista DiGioia

Mark DiGioia

Jennifer Sherriff

Genevieve Santos

Domingos Santos

Karen McCormack

Lauren Connelly

Kristen Perez

Lisa Carini

Liya Schmelzer

Joy Herbst

Krista Mello

Robert Mello

Marie Rotondo

Michael Rotondo

Jessica Aitoro

Monique Jara

Megan Donofrio

Kawtar Dahiry

Jelena Golubovic

Danny Golubovic

Domingos Antunes

Kristen and Jake Frame

Caroline and Daniel Steber

Gina and Keith Torpey

Paola and Christopher Benedetto

Kaitlin and Marcus Dierna

Alexander and Cameron Choniski

Kristen Stasko

Bridget Perry, PhD

MaryKate Cohane

Mary and Dan Drap

Jim Kuczo

Kelly and Brendan Mullahy

Sarah Bierman

Anthony Neri

Michelle Neri

Linda Terrell

Kristina and Tom Leonardo

Melissa Longo

Amy and Greg Sperrazza

Ashley and Daniel Cooke

Renata Papadopoulos

Cathy Politi

Amanda and Richard Hewitt

Suzanne Ramsteck

Michelle Hobart

Emily Bonsignore

Michelle and Jeff Gurner

Kristen Sasko

Shawn and Jennifer Grega

Jason Bonsignore

Stephanie Sirois

Edward Burman

Colleen Farrell

Christian Karolus

Monica Torrance