Should a teacher recognized for outstanding achievement who is receiving treatment for an autoimmune disease be fired for challenging her school board’s decision to not mandate mask-wearing of children in her class? It’s what I ask myself as I listen to her teary-eyed concerns about what she is about to endure in a few days as she reluctantly returns to the classroom.
Where to turn for help? Isn’t the teachers’ union supposed to step up? Forgot, it’s Utah. Isn’t her employer required to provide a safe working environment and protect her from students not wearing masks because of a parent’s misguided decision? What about the Legislature and governor who are elected to serve and protect the citizenry, not promulgate laws that tie public health’s hands. What about protecting the other children in the class and the families who welcome them home after school knowing they can bring home the Delta variant?
School classrooms have always been petri dishes for infectious diseases. Ask any of your teacher friends -- you know, the ones with the runny noses all the time who bring it home to their families. They probably wrote it off as an occupational hazard. But Covid isn’t the same as a common cold or the flu and many more children are being infected with Delta and showing serious outcomes.
Nature may take its course and instead of kids wearing masks in a classroom they will remain at home as schools shut down giving anti-mask parents another foolish Covid issue to protest. Unfortunately their disregard for their own child’s health affects us all, be it exposure or restrictions limiting our access to the community, once again.
Doug Vilnius, Park City
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