This 4th grader has received lots and lots of attention on social media and we cannot stop laughing at the clip. He got the chance to participate in an emergency board meeting, making everyone chuckle in the process. Can you believe that this child was able to come up with more sound reasoning than most of the adults?
The mask mandates need to end and it is sad that a literal child has to be the one to make that call. With less than 12 days of the school year remaining, the leaders voted 4-1 to make masks optional. This new mandate will kick in on June 1, though. This is the end date of the school year.
Martin County School District in Florida has voted to keep masks optional for summer school and graduation ceremonies. When little John got his chance to speak, he knew exactly what he wanted to say. He started by explaining that he expected the rules to be different at the start of the school year but instead, things remained the same throughout the course of his studies.
“I was surprised by the rules. A lot of them didn’t make any sense to me, like the fact that we were not allowed to play on the playground or have student council or turn to face each other at lunch. And we also have to wear masks outside at PE and on track,” he explained.
These rules do not make any sense and John is right to call them out. When even a child can see that the rules are silly, why should they have to follow them? He still loves going to school, which is a small miracle. However, the stories that he has to tell are ridiculous. We don’t know how kids can be expected to learn when stuff like this is happening:
“I love my school and all, but my teachers seem really stressed and that makes me feel bad. One teacher walks around with a clipboard full of referrals for any student whose mask isn’t on properly. It makes me feel scared. That same teacher yells at us having our mask down to drink water while we are outside in the car line,” shared the 10-year-old.
“She told us we had to wait until we were in her parents’ car to have a drink of water. She had her mask down the entire time while she was yelling at us, which makes me and all my friends very mad. This happens a lot,” he continued. Wait until you see this next quote, though.
“And it seems unfair teachers take their masks off while they yell at us kids and that we need to pull ours up. I asked my mom if there is a word for this and she said there is, hypocrisy,” John said. This young man has just received a crash course in the world of hypocrisy. He called out his teacher and he was brave to do so.
“Wearing a mask all day makes me feel really tired and gives me really bad headaches. Sometimes I’m in school and I need to lay low in the dark until they’re gone. My mask also sticks to my face when it’s hot and it makes it hard to breathe. I feel like I can’t catch my breath and that makes me feel claustrophobic and anxious. It’s really stressful,” said the boy. We’ll leave you with these final words from one exasperated parent:
“We have a little over two weeks left of school, I’m asking you to please let the children see the faces of their classmates and the emotions of their classmates again. Children are in the middle of a long testing period. I ask that you allow them to do it without a mask. I have a fifth-grader and an eighth-grader that would be participating in moving up ceremonies. And I am asking that you allowed to let them do that without a mask,” they said.
Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail…..
