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Hitchins: Vote Hitchins, Visel and Blackburn
Letter To The Editor

From Jared Hitchins

Monroe

To the Editor: 

Monday night, our school board unanimously voted to make masks optional for 4K students. Which is great news, and long overdue. But it does beg the question, why now? What changes have occurred to make our board unanimously change course?

When the board initially mandated masks for 4K students, unavailability of vaccines for this age group was cited as a reason. As of today, this has not changed as there still is no vaccine available for this age group.

The board also cited new variants, and high transmission rates as a reason to keep young children masked. But this has not changed either, as Omicron is still here, as well as a new “stealth” variant of omicron, and a hybrid variant of Delta and Omicron, called Deltacron. Vaccine efficacy against these strains is still undetermined. So no significant improvement or change on this front either.

So what has changed? The calendar has changed. We are less than three weeks away from Election Day. The first contested election any of the sitting board members have faced. The question you must ask yourself before casting your ballot is this: Was this change of policy made because the board is following the “science,” and having the best interests of students, parents and teachers in mind, or was it done to gain public favor in an attempt to earn your vote?

Kevin Visel, Camae Blackburn and I are running for school board in Monroe. We aren’t politicians, nor have we the desire to be. We are parents who believe in putting children first, and that the focus of the board should be providing our children the best possible education they can receive. Thank you for your consideration, and we appreciate your vote on April 5th.