LAPS masking policy

[Fran Gelfand]

LAPS School Board, Mrs. Guy, Mrs. Lynne, Mr. Payne, and Mr. Johnson,

Before the school year begins, I implore you to follow the recommendations of the CDC, the AAP, and Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, by immediately implementing a universal indoor masking policy at all LAPS schools.

Please recall that "my mask protects you, your mask protects me."   Breakthrough infections of the highly contagious and severe Delta variant in the vaccinated population pose a risk to unvaccinated individuals around them.  Vaccinated individuals must continue masking indoors in order to protect the unvaccinated.

There are students and staff at all of our schools who are unable to receive the vaccine even if they want to (including 11 year-old incoming 7th graders at LAMS who are not yet eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine).  In light of the Delta variant, it is imperative that vaccinated students, teachers, staff, and visitors to all LAPS schools wear masks in order to protect our unvaccinated children, parents, friends, and colleagues.

Please carefully consider all the points in the AAP's COVID-19 Guidance for Safe Schools.

The American Academy of Pediatrics' COVID-19 Guidance for Safe Schools (July 18, 2021):

The AAP recommends universal masking in school at this time for the following reasons:

• a significant portion of the student population is not eligible for vaccination
• protection of unvaccinated students from COVID-19 and to reduce transmission
• lack of a system to monitor vaccine status among students, teachers and staff
• potential difficulty in monitoring or enforcing mask policies for those who are not vaccinated; in the absence of schools being able to conduct this monitoring, universal masking is the best and most effective strategy to create consistent messages, expectations, enforcement, and compliance without the added burden of needing to monitor vaccination status
• possibility of low vaccination uptake within the surrounding school community
• continued concerns for variants that are more easily spread among children, adolescents, and adults

The Center for Disease Control's Guidance for COVID-19 Prevention in K-12 Schools (August 5, 2021):

CDC recommends universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status.

Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, via Twitter (July 27, 2021):

Per the latest @CDCgov guidance, we recommend that all New Mexicans wear a mask indoors out of an abundance of caution as we work to suppress the Delta variant.

Thank you,

Fran Gelfand

Parent of children at Chamisa Elementary School, LAMS, and LAHS

References

• Guidance for COVID-19 Prevention in K-12 Schools. Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
  https://services.aap.org/en/pages/2019-novel-coronavirus-covid-19-infections/clinical-guidance/covid-19-planning-considerations-return-to-in-person-education-in-schools/
  
• COVID-19 Guidance for Safe Schools.  American Academy of Pediatrics.
  https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/k-12-guidance.html
• Twitter status. New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham.
  https://twitter.com/GovMLG/status/1420149947286974464