Kodiak kids Pre-K through grade 5 may have to wear masks when they return to school

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The Kodiak Island Borough School District is developing plans to mask children from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, once school opens on Aug. 30. Students in the 2020-2021 school year wore masks after schools reopened.

An earlier plan was to have masks optional for students and staff. But the district staff is now recommending to the school board that the younger students be required to wear masks this fall, but masks for middle and high school students will still be optional, although recommended for those not fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

The district required masks during summer school this year for all students, but if a big spike in Covid cases is seen in Kodiak, Superintendent Larry LeDoux will ask that the mask mandate be reinstated for the children too young to be vaccinated.

Kodiak has seen 1,161 cases of Covid-19 among the 13,500 residents, or about 9 percent of the population of the island. Six deaths are attributed to the virus.

Since July 17, some 33 new cases of the virus have been diagnosed in the Kodiak Borough, a slight uptick in cases mirroring the upward trends seen around the world this summer.

There are 219 students in the Kodiak Island School District in six “town schools” and five “rural schools.”

The district’s Covid-19 mitigation and racism/equity plan for the 2021-22 school year is at this link.

11 COMMENTS

  1. And forcing children to wear masks, which are useless in preventing spread of a shedding virus is for what reason?
    This is child abuse, and it spotlights the low quality personnel called “teachers” in Alaska.

    • I have three kids in elementary school. Guess what? They don’t mind wearing masks. They didn’t get sick last year either. Until we get more people vaccinated I’m afraid this where we are at.

      • This is little more than hysterical, Karen-led child abuse. Your ignorant, insouciant, conformist and kneejerk pro-authority attitude and mentality is disgusting and completely un-American.

  2. A German study of co2 accumulations in children’s masks retracted from JAMA found mean value measurement after 3 minutes- 13000+ppm. One 7 yr. old had 25000 ppm.

    “Suicides in the Golden State last year jumped by 24% for Californians under 18 but fell by 11% for adults, showing how children were uniquely affected by “profound social isolation and loss of essential social supports traditionally provided by in-person school”.

    “Children requiring emergency mental health services jumped last year in Children’s Hospital of Oakland, and children’s hospitalizations for eating disorders more than doubled at UCSF Children’s Hospital. In January, the latter’s emergency department (ED) at Mission Bay hit a record for “highest proportion of suicidal children in ER” at 21%”, according to Jeanne Noble, director of COVID response in the UCSF emergency department.
    Guess what the symptoms of co2 poisoning are.

  3. I pray Kodiak parents get involved and protect them from this horrendous move by the school district who just wants power and control and is using fear to get it.

  4. Brian, the germs found on students masks was absolutely unbelievable!!! Children are less likely to get sick from Covid but when a child continues to wear a mask day in and day out, it WILL eventually affect their lungs but they are your kids so carry on as you see fit.

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