Dear Editor:

Thank you, Mid-Prairie school board members

For what? For requiring all students and staff to wear masks when they return to school face to face Aug. 24.

You would have missed a “teachable moment” had you not done so. You would have missed the opportunity to teach students:

1. That they can get COVID and unknowingly spread it to others since many young people who get it have no symptoms.

2. That they have a moral responsibility to care for others as much as themselves. Just as smoking is not allowed in public places because second hand smoke is harmful to non-smokers, and driving drunk is against the law because you can cause an accident and injure others, going maskless can speed the spread of COVID to those more vulnerable than themselves.

3. That scientists and health experts know best how to manage this pandemic. They say 60,000 lives can be saved if we all wear a $2-$5 mask until there is a vaccine. Is one person’s slight discomfort or “personal freedom” more important than saving all those lives? Especially if those lives end up being beloved teachers, coaches, parents or grandparents?

4. That not all classes are the same. When most of us think of “school,” we think of academic classes of 20-25 students sitting in rows facing straight ahead with one person talking one at a time as called on. This is actually a pretty rare scenario in schools and is significantly safer than 40-80 choir or band students sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in semi-circles all singing or blowing at the same time spewing droplets 10-12 feet at the teacher and each other if they don’t wear masks. And of course, there are PE and sports with excited kids cheering and yelling and scrambling for the same balls, kids working in groups of three and four in art, science, FCS, ag and occasional cooperative learning in other classrooms. And little preschoolers and kindergarteners playing together in the same activity areas – blocks, kitchens, paints, puzzles, cars and trucks, or sitting in semi-circles for story time. Not to mention crowded hallways, lunch lines and buses.

5. That wearing masks, even for little people, is doable and can even be fun if the adults in their lives are enthusiastic and consistent role models and buy or make them cute masks out of favorite old clothes or with cartoon characters. Our 5- and 7-year-old granddaughters wore masks through three airports (14-hour trip) from Ecuador to the U.S. this summer, and then five airports (27-hour trip) from the U.S. to Norway without complaint. We all buckle up our kids in the car to keep them and other passengers secure and safe in case of an accident. Requiring kids to wear masks for their own and others’ safety is no different.

6. That all our actions in life can have far reaching, unintentional consequences. Pleasantview (and I assume Parkview) nursing home residents in Kalona (and Wellman) have not seen their families in person for 5½ months. Can you imagine being 80-100 years old and not seeing your families for that long? They have been quarantined for their own health since March. This week, because COVID cases in Washington and Johnson counties have been down for several weeks, these nursing homes are finally permitted by the Dept. of Health to allow supervised face-to-face visits with two family members wearing masks. BUT, if there is an increase in cases in Washington or Johnson counties when school opens, these lonely elderly folks will have to be put back in quarantine. 

7. And that our loyal hometown businesses are all struggling financially during this pandemic. They have just, in the past month, all been able to return to some sense of normalcy and started to see a pick-up in business. These are the businesses who support our athletic, fine arts and elementary parent booster clubs. These are the businesses we hit up for paper products and food donations for fundraising meals. These are the businesses who buy yearbook ads. An increase in cases when school starts could close some of them back up again. We don’t want to “bite the hands that feed us.”

This pandemic is way bigger than any of us as individuals. We can’t go through it with blinders on and only think of ourselves. 

Again, thank you Mid-Prairie school board for sending this message to our students and caring enough about them, the Mid-Prairie staff and larger Mid-Prairie community to require masks. 

I hope when you revisit this issue the end of September that you vote unanimously to keep them.

Becky Curtis

Iowa City