To:
Premier of Ontario, Hon. Doug Ford
premier@ontario.ca
Ontario Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Kieran Moore
kieran.moore@ontario.ca
Minister of Education, Hon. Stephen Lecce
minister.edu@ontario.ca
From:
FACT Educators (Ontario)
info@facteducators.com
February 8, 2022
We are writing this letter to ask you to recall mask mandates for Ontario children immediately. We have reviewed the data and cannot find any justification for keeping these mandates in place.
Ontario school children have been wearing masks for over 2 years now as was mandated by the various Public Health authorities to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Over the period of two years, many studies have been conducted to determine the efficacy of mask wearing as a tool to prevent the spread. According to John Hopkins study, mandates such as mask wearing have had a tremendous negative effect on children’s mental health and well-being. Furthermore, according to a Stanford study, masks that children are wearing, such as the cloth masks, do not prevent transmission. One of the research studies, cited by the Ontario Public Health, has determined that social and emotional development of young children is significantly hindered when they do not see a person’s mouth. Therefore, the question remains: what is the ratio of risk to benefit, especially for young children, of wearing a mask? The simple answer is that the risk is way higher than the benefit.
If we are to explore this further, as educators, we have enough anecdotal evidence from our classrooms. The alarming number of children suffering from anxiety, panic attacks, suicidal thoughts, are all contributions of the pandemic mandates placed on them. Furthermore, we are also seeing massive social issues, behavioral issues and other mental health related concerns.
The message from various experts as well as teachers who actually are in the classroom with our children is clear: masking our children further will put them at greater risk of developing major mental health issues as the benefit of mask wearing has been proven futile when it comes to mitigating virus transmission.
It is time to let our children breathe again, and in the words of Dr. Kieran Moore and others, let’s move towards “living with COVID” and do away with mandates that no longer make sense.
Sincerely,
FACT Educators (Ontario)
info@facteducators.com
facteducators.com
Unmask the kids! I teach kindergarten and those that enter my class with speech and language issues are hindered further in growth because I can’t correct mouth formation for letter sounds when I can’t see their lips. I can’t hear them! How do you think they feel when they are trying to share something exciting and I can’t genuinely share in their joy because their voices are muffled. Children should be SEEN AND HEARD! Stop muzzling their voices!
Let our children breathe again .