Letter: West Ottawa right in leaving mask decision up to parents

My son is in first grade at Waukazoo Elementary. He has never gone to West Ottawa a day in his life without a face covering.

Initially, we thought the policy reasonable, given the public health risk. As the weeks turned into months and then years, it became increasingly apparent that face coverings were having a negative impact on his ability to learn to read and communicate with his peers.

We attended the Dec. 17 school board meeting to ask that parents be given the decision as to whether their children would be required to wear a face covering moving forward. Omicron was just ramping up and while it was already known to be significantly less deadly but many times more transmissible, the school board made a reasonable decision to wait untill after the holidays to update their policies.

This gave them a few weeks of data to compare to other districts that decided to drop the policy after the health department dropped the requirement Jan. 2, a date determined by the vaccine’s availability and having adequate time for students to get vaccinated if their families so choose.

When WO announced the mask mandate would expire Jan. 24, they provided data from multiple school districts that had dropped the mandate earlier in the month. Zeeland, Jenison and Hudsonville’s data were all included in the email showing 1 percent or less of the student body with infection, the same as West Ottawa.

Today, masks are still strongly recommended, but they are a choice. The West Ottawa School Board followed the science that clearly showed no benefit on transmission and recognized that face coverings didn’t come without negative effects on students’ ability to learn and develop. I appreciate the board's respect of each individual family’s ability to be able make these decisions for themselves.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Letter: West Ottawa right in leaving mask decision up to parents