**UPDATE: The original petition that was previously hosted on Change.org was taken down earlier today after approaching nearly 1000 signatures. Why? According to Change.org the petition violated “Community Guidelines”.
In other words, we were CENSORED. We were silenced for expressing our views. Views that were backed by data and facts, but were deemed to be “misinformation” by the tech tyrants and our opposition.
We were denied our 1st Amendment rights, and now we’re reclaiming them. Please sign our new petition below that’s now independently hosted on our website, and if you had signed our old petition at Change.org, please sign again!
We will NOT be silenced. We will NOT let big tech and our opposition stop us from protecting our children.**
We are asking for the Board of Education to keep in place the current masking policy that empowers parents to decide whether to mask their children. This allows parents to choose based on their children’s medical history and risk exposure. It respects the parents role in deciding what’s best for their own children.
Below is the Maryland Department of Health’s revised Covid 19 guidelines giving our county the authority to establish mask policy:
https://health.maryland.gov/phpa/Documents/07.23.2021%20MDH%20MSDE%20School%20Childcare%20Guidance%20FINAL.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3O34XDQ3zwLBmGIwu9mRGCIyI84NwUTueEObBdrhMCq6cxZIuDeSiey5U
Based on insufficient data regarding the COVID-19 delta variant, and scrutiny behind the singular case study used by the CDC to assess delta’s risk, it is premature to institute changes to mask policy or issue broader health safety directives.
We know from previous data provided by the CDC that children are not at high risk of serious illness or death, and that school environments are not super spreaders. This fact has also been confirmed by the CCPS Health Department Dashboard metrics.
Governor Larry Hogan has stated that over 75.8% of Marylanders over the age of 18 have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. 92.4% of Marylanders over 65 have received at least one dose. The state of Maryland outpaces the national rate of 88.8%, ranking 6th in the nation.
We request the BOE to consider this information when reviewing COVID prevention policies.