This week, I joined my colleagues in the Senate Republican Conference to once again say enough with the mandates and enough with the masking of our children. Simply put, we said it is time to end all of the mandates!
Our efforts follow the recent announcement by Governor Kathy Hochul ending the indoor mask mandate for some but leaving it in place in other situations. This long-awaited news is welcome for many who have had to endure nearly two years of personal encroachments on their individual rights during this debilitating pandemic and are mentally fatigued from the overreaching mandates initiated by the state.
But it is not the end of the mandates that have plagued our residents and we need to continue fighting. Most troubling, the restrictions remain in place for our youngest residents and it is beyond time to unmask our children. Think how confusing this must be to a young child.
One of my fellow legislators has two young children who are in kindergarten and first grade. All week long it is a struggle to get them to put their masks on before they leave the house for school. They do not really understand why they have to wear a mask on the bus and in the bathroom, classroom, and anywhere else on school grounds but DO NOT have to wear one when they go on a play date at a classmate’s house, or a sleepover, or a birthday party at a local restaurant or catering hall.
I fail to see the logic as well.
The day after the announcement, I joined every member of the Senate Republican Conference in penning a letter to Governor Hochul criticizing the decision to keep our children masked in school and calling for her to set specific metrics that will guide our state’s decision making. We want to know why 2.3 million schoolkids, who are 500 times less likely than seniors to be affected by COVID-19, have been zipped up into a political straightjacket void of data and science.
The fact is there is no science. Even the New York State Department of Health Commissioner Mary Bassett is unable to provide any scientific data that justifies the child mask mandates much less mandate it.
Back in January, State Supreme Court Justice Thomas Rademaker ruled that Dr. Bassett could not require masks indoors because it violated state law. He then struck down the regulations and barred the state from enforcing them. Our children were allowed to attend school without masks for one day. Then the State Education Department sent a message to school leaders saying the ruling would be stayed upon appeal, which it was. The kids had to put the masks back on.
Governor Hochul now says she will revisit the school mask mandate after the winter school break. Why wait? Connecticut will lift its school mask mandate February 28 and New Jersey will follow suit on March 7.
To try to put an end to the school mask mandate, the Senate Republican Conference joined together this past Monday to force the state to rescind this policy. But not one Senate Democrat joined the effort and the masks remain.
As we continue to wait, our kids suffer. For two years now our children have been wearing masks for eight hours or more every single day. Some teachers do not even know what their students look like. Parents have contacted our office concerned about their child’s mental health, brain development, hearing disabilities, even skin blotches formed from the masks.
The masks are even more suffocating for our student athletes. Since they are unable to breathe properly while sprinting, wrestling or jumping, most pull the masks down below their chins or discard the masks all together. Think how absurd this is for wrestlers in particular, who are in close physical contact with their opponent the entire match. To think the mask precludes transmission is ludicrous.
It is time, in fact way past the time, to end ALL mask mandates for all New York residents in all places, especially in schools, for the sake of our children’s well-being and their long-term health. Any resident who would like to join our efforts to Unmask Our Children can visit my website at mattera.nysenate.gov and sign up to add their voice. It is vital that we stand together to ensure that our state works for our residents and not the other way around.
