'It feels so unfair to me that she’s paying the price. She’s done everything right.'
But with the delta variant tearing through largely unvaccinated communities and health officials sounding alarms overin new infections among kids, this is not the start to a new school year that parents had hoped for. And in parts of the country where coronavirus infections are surging and where mask politics have reached new heights, many parents like Maddox feel helpless, resigned to sending their children to schools where they do not feel at all confident that they’ll be kept safe.
Nicholas would have strongly considered keeping his son home for remote learning again this year had the option been available to him, but it wasn’t. So instead, he’s asked his son to stay masked, knowing the level of protection he’s getting is likely less than what he’d get if everyone wore face coverings.
“Nobody in the community is wearing masks,” said Poppe, calling it a “free-for-all.” She added that her children’s school district does not require students or school staff to quarantine if they’ve been exposed or infected. Nicole’s local school district does have a mask mandate, in defiance of the state’s governor. Still, the skepticism in her community runs deep. At the end of the last school year, Nicole sent her daughter into the classroom for in-person learning, where she was one of only two children wearing a face mask. Her daughter’s teacher, who Nicole says has shared her anti-masking views on social media, told her she didn’t have to wear it.
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