Letter to the Editor: Gibraltar is Hurting our Kids and Taxpayers

Last month the Gibraltar School District Administration put out a new handbook for the upcoming school year. The biggest topic was, and still is, masking and COVID policies. Not education. The decree sent down from the top was masks were optional for seventh-12th grades, but K-sixth grade masks are required. 

Moments after that, all the school board members and administrators displayed unmasking of themselves for all to see. “What a relief,” they said. What a slap in the face for all the parents and students still required to mask. “Do as we say, not as we do” is what they all should have yelled as they happily removed their masks.

This is the same school board and administration that spent thousands of taxpayer money on COVI-19 protocols. They installed a new ventilation system, virtual learning, and more. For what? To be the only school in the county still requiring masks? Tax dollars well spent? No. 

Forcing a group of children who are the least at risk for the virus to cover their face with a mask limits their ability to learn social cues, learn to read and be learners in a school setting. Not to mention the mental health concerns and stress caused by masks.

The CDC says that the mortality risk from covid is lower than the seasonal flu. There is no evidence to the contrary. If you feel that putting a mask on your child is going to keep them safe, then do so. However, forcing a mask onto a child who has so much learning and development ahead of them is harmful, in my opinion.

Thomas Sowell sums this up in a perfect quote: “Hilary Clinton said, ‘You know, it takes a village to raise a child,’ and somebody said it takes a village idiot to believe that … it is part of the whole thing of third parties wanting to make decisions for which they pay no price for when they’re wrong.”

Sam Northrop

Fish Creek, Wisconsin