Parents in the Long Island area are calling for Governor Andrew Cuomo to revoke New York’s state requirement that all children must be masked in school. They are hoping that their kids can experience a mask-free school day before the year ends.
These parents are claiming that it is unreasonable for children to continue to wear masks, as they are sweltering in the summer heat. Kids are allowed to play without masks while outdoors but must be fully masked at all times when indoors at school. However, the mask mandate has been lifted almost everywhere else in New York City.
According to CBS New York, parents have complained that there has not been “any science [to] back up why our kids are still in school wearing masks,” and that kids are “sweating in school with masks on and can’t breathe.” Another parent chimed in that “it doesn’t make sense” why kids “have to be prisoners in school.”
As young children have not yet been vaccinated, the school requirement exists to protect students from coronavirus infection. Many schools believe that students and families will feel safer if they continue to wear masks in order to minimize the risk of infection.
Governor Cuomo believes that it is best to keep the mask mandate in place at New York schools for now but said that he plans to reevaluate in the fall. There will be more time over the summer for schools to prepare for what the 2021-2022 year will look like, and for the Governor to consider whether children can safely attend school indoors without masks.
