To the Editor:
Today I am sending a very mass email to some of our media out there in hopes to get the message out for us parents who are fighting for parental choice and the right to make the decisions for our children in any type of setting, especially educational.
I am from a small town, Carlyle, and we are located about 45 minutes east of St. Louis. I belong to several “parents” groups on Facebook along with some like-minded parents in our Clinton County family, and we are all fighting for our kids. We have spoken at school board meetings, we have participated in showing support for other schools in our county at their school board meetings and we have marched in some local parades as well as held peaceful protests.
Up until last week, we thought we had won the fight in our district. On July 21, our school board of CUD # 1 voted to have masks optional. We really have a great school board and each member explained why they voted the way we did. One school board member voted against, because he is afraid of the personal liability. (Which has been explained time and time again, that there is no way a school board member can be sued for making masks optional).
Last week our great tyrant of a governor, J.B. Pritzker, announced that he is going to require masks in school again for all school aged children and they also are trying to push the vaccine. But just a week before this announcement, Lollapalooza was held in Chicago with thousands of people, including our governor and the mayor of Chicago in attendance with no masks.
Our children have played sports all summer long, gone on vacations, gone to the pool, hung out with friends at summer camps, all with no masks! My child suffers from asthma. Last year he wore a mask while in P.E. and several times he had to go get his inhaler because he couldn’t breathe.
How unhealthy can a mask be for a child to wear for eight hours? A group of Gainsville, Florida parents sent six face masks to a lab that had been worn by children for eight hours during the day. There were no findings of viruses in the masks, but what was found was a breeding ground for streptococcus pneumoniae, mycobacterium tuberculosis, neisseria meningitis, acanthamoeba polyphagia, acinetobacter baumanni, esherichia coli, borrelia burgdorferi, corynebacterium diphtheriae, legionella pneumonia, staphylococcus pyogenes serotype M3 and staphylococcus aureus.
There is also the mental aspect of it as well. Kids learn on facial recognition. They need to see smiles. It is a nightmare for children with learning disabilities to have a mask on their face, while trying to learn. Depression and suicide among children has skyrocketed. The mental risks outweigh the health risks of COVID.
I know COVID is a real thing, my family had it in May 2021. It was like having a sinus infection and then we lost our taste and smell. There were days that I didn’t want to do anything and it took me about two months to really get over the constant dragging of just trying to make it through the day. I haven’t been vaccinated, nor I will not get the vaccine. I have been following the science that this is a virus…..and a vaccine will not cure a virus. It just has to run its course.
I have known people that have passed away from COVID, some very close to me. I truly believe that they waited too long to go to the doctor. Had they gone to the doctor at the start of their symptoms, they would still be here. They had underlying conditions which would have been almost the same circumstance for the common flu.
I did a survey back in June that was a part of my speech to the board of education for the June meeting. The results of the survey for our community was that 142 responded and 86% of those people voted for masks optional. 86% …… now granted, I only had 142 respondents in a town that has a population of roughly 3,500 people, but out of those 142 people, 92% of them had children in our district.
We have the Illinois State Board of Education and government officials threatening that the schools will lose their insurance coverage and funding if they do not comply with these new requirements. The last I was told and saw on the CDC website was that it was a “recommendation” that masks should be worn. I am no lawyer, but a recommendation is not a law and the governor does not have the power to enforce such recommendations. I am also a taxpayer and I know for a fact that 61% of my tax bill goes to our district. There is no funding to be taken away, when the public school system is funded by tax dollars.
We have an emergency school board meeting for our district on Wednesday, Aug. 11. I am praying that they will hold their ground and keep local control. As it is my understanding we still have local control, but they are being pushed very hard by the ISBE.
I am a firm believer to do what’s best for you. I don’t care if you want to wear a mask, I don’t care if you get the vaccine, but you do you and I will do me. I brought my child into this world and I should have the right to decide all of his/her medical decisions.
All I ask of you today, is to help spread our message to unmask our kids!!! We are out there and we are fighting!!
Tina Waner, Carlyle