Anti-mask petition circulates on Facebook

Throughout the entire school year, Cedar Falls High School has required masks for all students and staff as a part of the dress code. While many students still wear a mask every day, parents and students alike have started to speak out against the mask policy, most recently expressed through a Facebook post that has been shared multiple times. 

The petition, posted on Change.org and shared through Facebook and other social media, currently has 713 signatures. The post’s description said, “Parents of children in the Cedar Falls Community School District should be able to decide for their own children whether to wear masks or not for the 2021-2022 school year. We want facemasks to be optional for the students, staff and parents of Cedar Falls Community School District for 2021-2022. Please sign if you live in the Cedar Falls Community School District and would like the parents in our district to have the choice for their own children to mask or not.”

The petition itself also has multiple comments. One comment posted by parent Jess Hansen has 25 likes under the petition on Change.org. “Masks are unsafe in a non-sterile environment,” Hansen writes. “Kids (and most adults) touch their masks constantly, contaminating them with bacteria and other viruses, many of which can be more harmful to children than COVID-19. Kids also drop masks on the ground and then put them back on their faces. Touching a mask places whatever bacteria is on one’s hand directly on one’s hand directly on to the mask surface, where it sits.” 

While many other comments directly support this logic, the CDC recommends that all citizens continue to wear a mask inside, and disputes similar arguments of this nature that the bacteria on masks themselves pose a greater risk than COVID-19. 

Another comment posted by parent Michele Green said, “Masks are not safe! Mask increases the rate of disease by causing our body to meet more acidic and more hypoxic which is the perfect state for disease. Get healthy. Eat right, exercise, get outside and go play in the dirt. Our body is designed perfectly to deal with viruses. God made us strong.”

Other comments claim that the mask mandate within the school is the result of a liberal agenda, a political push for students to wear masks. The guidelines for the district come from the nonpartisan CDC, which states on its website, “You should wear a mask, even if you do not feel sick. This is because several studies have found that people with COVID-19 who never develop symptoms (asymptomatic) and those who are not yet showing symptoms (pre-symptomatic) can still spread the virus to other people. Wearing a mask helps protect those around you, in case you are infected but not showing symptoms.”

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