An American grade 5 schoolchild, forced like his classmates to wear a medical or cloth mask over his mouth and nose for all the long hours of school and even outdoors during PE, politely asks his school board to make masks optional because he can’t breath properly, has headaches and constant fatigue and difficulty concentrating and feels that breathing is not something anyone should have to ask permission for.
This boy is 10 years old. He addresses his school board meeting:
"We have to wear masks outside in PE and on Track."
"The teacher had her mask down while yelling at us kids to put our masks up when we were having a drink of water in the car line. She said we had to wait until we got into our parents’ car to have a drink. I asked my mom if there is word for this and she said yes. Hypocrisy."
"Wearing a mask all day makes me really tired and gives me really bad headaches. The mask gets wet and sticks to my face which makes it hard to breath. I can’t catch my breath and that makes me feel claustrophobic and anxious. I took all my tests and it was really hard to concentrate in the mask "
"I understand my teacher has asthma and gets a mask break. But I’m not allowed a mask break like her and it seems unfair. All this seems unfair and it doesn’t make sense."
"I miss seeing people’s face. I miss the way things used to be. I’m scared that they’ll never get back to normal. Breathing doesn’t seem like something we should have to ask any other people for permission for. Please make masks optional. It would be nice to end the school year on really happy note.”
If this kid’s unhappy situation is not repeated already in BC schools it very soon will be because this is the BC government’s policy:
Updated masks in schools guidelines
All K to 12 staff and all students in grades 4 to 12 are required to wear non-medical masks in all indoor areas, including:
- At their work stations (desks)
- On school buses
- Within and outside learning groups…
Why is this cruel and inherently unfair policy in place here and enforced by teachers? Because the BC Teacher’s Union has grabbed power over public policy. The Union leadership and the BC NDP government, backed reliably by the even-farther-left Green Party, are a mutual admiration society as usual. They are all fat and sassy and virtually unopposed politically up there on the heights of power. So kids who can’t breath properly don’t stand a chance of being heard up here in liberal-left heaven. Teachers are getting paid to be arbitrary dictators determining when children get, or don’t get, an occasional short break from being suffocated so they are just fine and dandy. Or if they aren’t they’d better keep their opinions behind their masks or they risk their jobs.
I’m just assuming that that’s how things are and how they are going to be up here as well as down in the States. And I miss seeing people’s faces and I miss the way things were. And I’m scared things are never going to go back to normal. But I don’t have to wear a sopping cloth muzzle over my mouth and nose for hours a day five days a week even outdoors. So far.