Opinion: As mother of young children, I beg Cobb to mandate masks

By Charis Granger-Mbugua

I wish I could say this new school year began with all the joyful anticipation and childhood wonder that only a new school year can bring.

You know, the thrill of brand-new notebooks just waiting to be written in. The excitement of choosing the very best first day of school outfit or eagerly scanning class lists to see familiar names of friends to share a laugh and eat lunch with. The quiet relief a parent feels knowing her children will be tucked away safely at school for six hours being taught, nurtured, and loved on by qualified teachers and school staff who care about their students’ success.

But that lighthearted and euphoric feeling escaped my family as we prepared for this new school year. In its place, feelings of fear, worry, guilt, confusion, frustration, anger, and even impending doom loomed large and undeniable.

After more than a year of virtual learning, my two children returned to the classroom Monday morning — my son to second grade and my 4-year-old daughter to a Georgia pre-K program.

Like many families, we made the decision last spring to return to in-person learning this school year based on the information available to us at the time. In April, COVID-19 cases were trending downward, the delta variant had yet to sweep through communities at alarming and terrifying rates, and masks were still mandated in our school district.

Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@

Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@

But a mere four months later, the data is telling a different story. We are still very much in the midst of a deadly and dangerous pandemic. And this latest variant of COVID-19 is proving to be a much more formidable opponent. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the delta variant is “more transmissible than the viruses that cause MERS, SARS, Ebola, the common cold, the seasonal flu and smallpox, and it is as contagious as chickenpox ...”

Just in time for the school year, however, every major health organization, from the American Academy of Pediatrics to the World Health Organization offered a simple strategy to keep children safe, while still promoting in-person learning as the priority — universal masking for everyone over the age of 2, regardless of vaccination status.

But as has seemingly been the case since the beginning of the pandemic, that simple directive is as divisive and as polarizing as it has ever been. Even with the safety and health of children at stake.

In Cobb County, where my children attend school, masks are still optional, despite the superintendent’s previous public commitments to listen to science and medical experts. According to recently updated health protocols released by the district on Aug. 4, “masks are strongly encouraged but optional for students and staff” and “students or staff who are identified as a close contact and are asymptomatic are able to return to class or work the next day if the student or staff member remains asymptomatic and wears a mask while on school district property …”

Just to be clear, an asymptomatic person is not virus free. He or she is just not showing any symptoms at the time and is still quite capable of shedding and spreading the virus. Furthermore, masks are, at a minimum, removed during lunch so that students and staff can eat — and unfortunately spread the virus while doing so.

CCSD’s continued perpetuation of this type of misinformation under the guise of guidance is negligent at best and potentially deadly at the very worst.

I recognize that the debate around choice continues to ring loudly, especially as it pertains to masking. For all intents and purposes, choice in and of itself is not a bad thing. I try to teach my children every day to make “good choices.”

But we would do well to remember that choice is often a luxury of the privileged. Many do not have the choice to withdraw and homeschool their children, even though they are terrified their child might get sick at school and bring the virus home to a medically fragile family member. And many do not have the choice to afford adequate health care for themselves or their families, especially if hospitalization or long-term care is required. Children of color continue to be disproportionately impacted by severe COVID-19 illness and death. These children do not have a choice.

So perhaps we can all sacrifice our comfort and preferences now and make the choice to listen to the experts. What if we made the choice to believe that masks help mitigate the spread of this virus and protect the most vulnerable among us — the babies, the pregnant women, the grandparents, the immunocompromised, the elementary school students, like my son, who are still ineligible to be vaccinated.

Remember, wearing a mask doesn’t just protect you, it protects others. It is an act of selflessness.

And perhaps our district leaders and elected officials could rise to the occasion and choose to do the right thing. They could choose to make the health and safety of thousands of students and families a priority by mandating masks.

Tell me, what do we have to lose?

A dear friend of mine (and high school teacher) recently said to me, “Let’s hope we’re wrong. Let’s hope we’re wrong about the dangers of COVID-19 and the delta variant. Let’s hope we’re wrong about the necessity of masks. Let’s hope we’re wrong about the potential long-term effects of the virus on our bodies and our children.”

But let’s consider, even for a moment, that all of the science and data , is not, in fact, wrong. What then? Could lives have been saved and people protected — our children protected — if we had just made a different choice. The choice to wear a mask while in school buildings.

I get that this particular choice is not always easy or ideal. There is no denying that my 4-year-old daughter wearing a mask during the school day, while the majority of her peers are not, is at times difficult for her. She is doing a hard thing. And I am proud of her. But as of today, there is no evidence to suggest her masking will be a detriment to her long-term health and well-being. However, there is evidence to show that without the mask she could become sick with COVID-19 and infect her baby cousin, or her grandparents with underlying conditions.

The Georgia chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics wrote an open letter to local school superintendents urging them to require all staff and students over the age of two to wear masks, regardless of vaccination status. The letter, written at the end of July stated, “although COVID-19 is more lethal in the elderly and adults, it’s not a benign illness in children. Moreover, even after apparent recovery from the virus, children are susceptible to developing the Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (MIS-C) characterized by severe inflammation of the heart, kidneys, and other organs …”

Our children are too important, their lives too full of promise, to continue in the way we are going.

It is our job, as responsible adults, to make the challenging and sometimes uncomfortable decisions that can keep our children safe.

As a mother of two young children, I am begging the leaders in CCSD to change course and make masks a requirement in our schools.

Not everyone will be happy, I know; but temporary happiness pales in comparison to a life spared.

Choose life.

The author of this column, former teacher Charis Granger-Mbugua, is a graduate of Cobb schools and now a parent in the system.