Lunacy: School Districts Begin New School Year with Mask Mandates Still in Place, and Worse...

Townhall.com ^ | 6 September A.D. 2022 | Guy Benson

[lightman]

Just to restate what we've written about many times before, mask mandates don't work -- and they're especially needless and ineffective in schools. It's worse than that, actually. Forced masking can have an affirmatively harmful effect on some young children, rendering continued requirements not only anti-science, but almost abusive. We have known the facts about kids and COVID for at least two years at this point, and yet, as the 2022-2023 academic year is getting underway, a number of districts across the country are imposing this data-defying insanity upon students yet again. Philadelphia is one of the most science-hostile jurisdictions in America, so it's no great surprise that they're participating in the latest idiotic misadventure:

Philly schools will require students and staff to wear masks for the first 10 days of the school year and then could go mask-optional after that, district officials announced Friday. “This is an extra precaution for everyone’s health and well-being,” said Kendra McDow, the district’s chief medical officer...District Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr., who recently succeeded outgoing Superintendent William Hite, said Philadelphia schools continue to be “among the safest places for our students to be.” Watlington said the district will take a “multi-layered” safety approach this school year, including air purification, touchless hand sanitizing stations, and thorough and frequent school cleanings...Students and staff at PreK Head Start programs will still be required to wear masks at all times, in accordance with federal guidelines...The district’s staff vaccine mandate will remain in place, which requires all staff members hired after Oct 1, 2021, to be fully vaccinated.

They're mindlessly playing all the restrictionist hits, not matter how reality and shifted. The masks are pointless-to-detrimental, including or especially for pre-schoolers, for crying out loud. The school cleanings are useless. That's not how the virus works. This has been established for a very long time. The vaccine mandate is also ridiculous, considering that even the CDC has finally stopped distinguishing between vaccinated and unvaccinated people in its quarantine guidance, given that the vaccines do not prevent transmission. Meanwhile, it's even worse in New Jersey's largest school district, where mystical, left-wing superstition continues to reign:

Even through summer programs, during which Newark Public Schools reported 82 total COVID cases among staff and students from July 4 through Aug. 7, the district’s mask rules didn’t budge. Now, as students gear up to start a new school year on Sept. 6, the district mandate will remain – a recommendation that NPS officials say comes from the city’s health department — leaving face masks as a back-to-school item many parents would rather do without...Many families are growing impatient with the district’s wait-and-see approach, saying they feel “ignored” by the district about their concerns. “My child cannot start yet another school year wearing masks when the majority of children throughout New Jersey and the country are returning to school with some kind of normalcy,” said Anna Da Silva, as she watched her 6-year-old daughter run around without a mask among other kids at a Newark park on Wednesday. “I feel frustrated and in disbelief that we’re here once again,” said Da Silva, whose first grader attends the new Ironbound Academy Elementary School.

Philly at least has a stupid, arbitrary end date in mind for the mandate, whereas Newark's is open-ended. A number of the news stories on this policy feature a photo of the district superintendent double masked and wearing gloves. How "safe." I'll also note that as controversial new programs come on line, second graders in Newark will reportedly be introduced to new curricula on sexuality and gender identity -- and will apparently have to wear masks as they're exposed to those ideas. The priorities speak for themselves. Washington, DC's COVID mandates and decrees are some of the craziest and least equitable in the country, with a number of other blue areas still clinging to as much madness as they can. It's hard to believe this snapshot of lunacy was taken in September of 2022. California:

And down in free Florida, Charlie Crist's radical running mate continues to unwittingly make in-kind contributions to the DeSantis re-election campaign. You can have Florida as it exists, dear voters, or you can have these people in charge:

“Join us for a canvass in Hollywood or Hallandale Beach to talk with your neighbors about electing Democrats up and down the ballot in 2022!” they say. Hernandez-Mats is supposed to arrive at 1 P.M. to “welcome back the first shift of canvassers and send off the second group.” Anna Fusco, current President of the Broward Teachers Union, told those planning to canvas with the Florida Democrats to “plan to wear a face mask that snugly covers your nose and mouth and comfortable walking shoes.” “Don’t forget the sunscreen!” she said.

I know we may not bat an eye at it, especially given the outdoor masking nuttery, but it should still be somewhat wild to see the teachers union openly campaigning for to "elect Democrats up and down the ballot." I'm not saying is extraordinary. It's normal. But the teachers union is a partisan organization that exists for politics, not students. In exchange for their activism and huge financial contributions to Democrats (effectively furnished by taxpayers, given who pays public school teachers' salaries), the unions get to exert their influence on all sorts of policies, up to and including changing the Official Science to align with their selfish agenda. When parents try to push back against the powerful government education establishment, the FBI is sicced on them. What's most disturbing is how so many powerful people refuse to admit error on any of the terrible mishandling of children and schools during the pandemic, despite the mounting and conclusive evidence that it inflicted terrible harms on millions of kids. They actually oppose normalcy, and occasionally admit it: Recommended Colorado's Sleeper Senate Race Just Got Real Salena Zito

Also on that virtual 'back to school' roundtable convened by the White House last week? Randi Weingarten, of course, because accountability isn't something in which they ever feel obligated to engage. They gaslight and revise history, hoping no one will notice:

And it's hard to escape the conclusion that many of them would do the exact same thing all over again:

I'll leave you with my comments on this subject, building off of this post, on television over the weekend:

[lightman]

Of course many teachers and administrators have been indoctrinated by institutions of "higher learning", many of which (Georgetown, Rutgers, OSU...) are STILL requiring masks "regardless of vaccination status".

Which only proves that they have learned that the jabs are useless.

[cp124]

Tired of over educated idiots.

[glennaro]

Some people — specifically teachers and “medical bureaucrats” — just enjoy hurting kids. In the face of solid science and two years of hard data, there is just no other explanation.

[metmom]

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[dsrtsage]

I don’t know about healthy children, but if I monitor my O2 with a pulse oximeter I can watch it drop from 97 to 89 when I wear a mask. I imagine that cannot be good for childrens organs, or brains.

[toddausauras]

Women looooove masks....not all but yes, women drive this “safety” crap. All forms of maleness are being snuffed out.

[Grampa Dave]

Some people — specifically teachers and “medical bureaucrats” — just enjoy hurting kids. In the face of solid science and two years of hard data, there is just no other explanation.

Hate your kids?!???!!

Make them vegans and force them to attend public schools where they can really be hated by their so called teachers.

[cld51860]

But they care more about your kids than you do. s/

[ConservativeInPA]

The experimental gene therapy is useless. In fact, it is harmful. Masks are useless. In fact, they are harmful.

Pay attention to what Philadelphia schools think is important. Then look at the graduates of their schools. Jeez, just try listening to a typical Philadelphia teacher.

Philadelphia has a generation of illiterates breeding and indoctrinating the next generation of illiterates. It’s not a new problem. It has existed all my life.

[thegagline]

“Masks are useless.“

Do you have any evidence to support that statement?

I'm not disagreeing with you however, I would like to see the studies that support that conclusion.

[lightman]

About as effective as a chain link fence against a dandelion seed.

[Hojczyk]

Masks do not work......every so called Doctor new it...Maybe an N95 mask in a hospital setting....still only about thirty percent

[ConservativeInPA]

Yes. I believe the number of studies stand at over 160. 163 sticks in my head. Do an internet search and read a couple. Common masks that you get from the pharmacy allow viruses to penetrate but trap bacteria. Prolonged exposure to bacteria trapped in masks is harmful and at a minimum causes halitosis. Just try wearing one of those masks while doing some woodworking to see how effective they are. Masking children also retards their learning and is psychologically abusive.

[stinkerpot65]

Democrats are evil scum.

[ConservativeInPA]

Here’s a FR thread on one study

[Sicon]

It is because the masks are a tool of control - a physical tool to gain psychological, intellectual, and emotional control over school kids. Eventually, these abused and controlled kids will be able to vote, and they will vote as they have been conditioned to: for promised “safety” over freedom, for collectivism/socialism over independence and self-reliance.

[Freee-dame]

With the huge amounts of magic money being sent out from DC, perhaps each school child could have been assigned a pulse oximeter to check his oxygen level. When it became obvious that masks inhibit oxygen flow, maybe some of the tyrants would eliminate the mask mandate.

[jmaroneps37]

Crist and Demings lose 70/30 in South Florida; 55/45 in Central Florida and 65/35 in the Panhandle.
The both of them will kill the down ballot rodents. Only Washerwoman Schultz and a few Black Democrat/communists that have no GOP opponent, to speak of, will survive.

[EC Washington]

So the Parents just go along with Masking their kids and don’t keep them home?

[lightman]

It’s all about teaching COMPLIANCE….
...not “following the science”:

Masks are:

1) a sign of submission, subversion and subjugation
2) mandated in order to dehumanize
3) virtue signaling devices
4) meant to provide constant reinforcement of fear
5) used to destroy community, friends and family normal communication
6) implemented to create isolation, confusion, anxiety, destroy human connectivity, trust and interactions
7) mandated to exacerbate illness
8) intended to aid in the abandonment of the belief and reliance on our immune systems
9) intended to refute integrous science
10) signal to positions of power that you are willing to give up all of your rights and freedoms based on anything they say, even if it is a BIG FAT LIE!