In an interview with “Good Morning San Diego,” San Diego Unified School District Board President Sharon Whitehurst-Payne gave an outrageous response while defending the school district’s decision to return to indoor mask mandates.
Whitehurst-Payne asserted that students who don’t want to wear a mask or are uncomfortable wearing a mask should not return to school.
“They really should wear the mask.”
She added that if students don’t feel comfortable with the mask, they should “at that point, just not return.”
Summer school students will now be required to use masks indoors, even though there wasn’t a mandate at the time. It was sent home with a note by the district that stated:
“If your student is participating in summer school or other summer enrichment program, please send them to school or their program with a mask … If they do not have one, masks will be provided. Students and staff will be required to wear their masks while indoors only.”
Whitehurst-Payne answered a question about parents who were concerned by the mandate to wear masks.
“They can opt not to return to the regular school but to go to the school where they don’t have to go to school at all other than via Zoom.”
She added there are “some options” such as “school that’s online.”
Harvard University studied the effects of learning in person compared with online education. Thomas Kane was one of the researchers of the study.
“Students in high-poverty schools that were remote for more than half of 2020-21 would be expected to see a 5% decline in average earnings over their career, given past relationships between test scores and earnings … That may not sound like much, but when calculating losses for all 50 million students in K-12 education in the U.S., it would amount to a $2 trillion decline in lifetime earnings.”
As if the mask mandates had been forgotten, the San Diego Unified school District and Los Angeles County plan to resume the mandate. However, it remains unclear if Los Angeles County residents will be following the lead. The San Diego Unified Schools District children will have to don their masks, unless they can be home-schooled or moved to private schools.
This example shows how important school choice really is. That is why California’s election to the position of Superintendent of Public Instruction was so close. Lance Christensen is in an excellent place to unseat Tony Thurmond. Christensen believes in school choice and is willing to do anything to make public schools better.
As Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said in February, the medical science didn’t change — the political science did.
The medical science on forced masking children didn’t change — the political science did. Florida did not impose state-mandated masks. We freed children and their parents from local authorities that did. Every jurisdiction should follow our example. pic.twitter.com/Dz4SgObVJx
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) February 8, 2022
Minority families and children will be the best served by school choice, and parents can make their voice heard in November.
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