I am concerned about the effects Salt Lake County Council’s reversal of Dr. Dunn’s health order will have on Utah’s children, but not in the ways most are talking about. Sure, I am worried that having unmasked kids at school undoubtedly will increase the spread of the deadly Delta variant amongst this now very vulnerable population given their lack of access to vaccines. Yes, I am worried that kids will die because of misinformation and politicization of a public health crisis. Those are big worries, but as a child and adolescent psychiatrist, I am also worried about the effects of this on our children’s social milieu at school.
In a letter to the media, one member of the council cited the mental health crisis facing Utah’s kids and then inexplicably tried to tie part of that burden to the “psychological harm” to children “from their reaction to mask-wearing.” This is simply absurd.
If “annoyance” equates to the “psychological and emotional trauma” cited by this councilman, then parents should probably be asked to stop asking their kids to clean their rooms. My own daughter’s reaction to being told she would be returning to school in a mask was more out of concern that she would be seen as different from her classmates who returned to school maskfree.
One benefit of universal masking at school was a level playing field. Everyone was masked — end of discussion.
I worry that in this new environment, parents’ decisions (and strong opinions) on the matter will play out in detrimental ways. I worry that kids who are not masked will be teased because they aren’t “doing enough to stop the spread of the pandemic,” or “don’t care about killing somebody’s grandma.” I worry that kids who are masked will be teased because “masks don’t work” or they “aren’t making America great.”
Basically, I am worried that their parents’ politics/beliefs — on vaccinations/misinformation/anxieties/etc. — will play out on the playground.
Masks could become an easy target for singling out or bullying whether they are worn or not. Our kids do not need another reason to feel different, to feel stressed out as they navigate this pandemic (a time of unprecedented mental health crisis for our youth) and head into an already anxiety-laden start of the school year for many. Our community does not need uninformed policy makers politicizing the mental health crisis either. If the County Council really is unwilling to make the right decisions for the physical health of our kids, please don’t use their mental health as a scapegoat.
Jeremy Kendrick, Salt Lake City
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