For one brief shining moment, Poly Prep was leading the fight against absurd state orders by announcing it would make masks optional for its students. Alas, the school had to cave to government busybodies.
Or, as the school’s health director put it in understated Orwellian terms, “We received clarity today from the NY State Department of Health and Mental Hygiene that such a measure is not permissible under current state- and city-wide restrictions.”
As we’ve noted, masking for kids is completely anti-science. They face minuscule COVID risks with fewer than 800 Americans under 18 dying of it since 2020 (and most of those had serious underlying conditions).
Schools, once they reopened, had among the lowest rates of spread in New York (the school positivity rate recently crashed to under 1%).
And studies suggest masking harms learning, especially among younger students.
So we lament Poly for falling prey to politicians over the real science.
As ever, good sense in this sad affair came from parents (remember those people who Dems claim shouldn’t have any say in their children’s education?). A Poly teacher told The Post, “They made it very clear they didn’t want their kids wearing masks.”
But bullying from state bureaucrats put paid again to the wishes of moms and dads. Sad.
So the million-plus kids in the city’s public schools (including charters) will be stuck masking until Gov. Kathy Hochul says otherwise.
Never mind that the mandate is going away all across the country. Did you see the video of young learners in Las Vegas after their teacher told them “no more masks”? They spontaneously burst into cheers and dancing.
Governor, watch that video. Then tell us that kids “don’t mind” masks.
School masking to fight COVID is, was and always will be a terrible, pointless policy. And it’s one issue you can fix with a stroke of your pen.
