A student is reading a book while wearing a mask (Photo – PUSD)
Open Letter from 75+ PUSD Stakeholders Urges PUSD to Tie PUSD’s Indoor Masking Requirement to CDC’s New COVID-19 Community Levels Recommendations.
By Una Lee Jost
On March 10, 2022, a coalition of 75+ PUSD parents, teachers, students, and stakeholders released an “Open Letter to PUSD In Strong Support of Tying PUSD’s Indoor Masking Requirement with CDC’s New COVID-19 Community Levels Recommendations.” They urged PUSD to “remain vigilant in protecting PUSD’s vulnerable children and multigenerational families living with racial disparities and disabilities by continuing efforts to timely adhere to the most accurate health guidance – including lifting PUSD’s indoor masking requirement only when safe to do so, in alignment with CDC’s new COVID-19 Community Levels recommendations.
The Open Letter signers note that earlier this year, PUSD celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Holiday. The signers note that “[i]n keeping with Dr. King’s legacy against racial inequality and poverty,” they “hope PUSD will be known as a district that regularly views decision-making through an equity lens, from the perspective of PUSD’s vulnerable children and multi-generational families living with racial disparities and disabilities.” Particularly as, the signers note, “two-thirds of PUSD students are from low-income or Black/Brown households at higher risk of infections and death due to COVID-19,” and “vaccination of Pasadena’s Black and Brown populations, as well as children, continue to lag behind Pasadenans in general.”
The Open Letter signers state that their request is consistent with PTA stated positions and “We’re still at a point in the pandemic where we can be saving lives of those in our PUSD communities by continuing to implement PUSD’s indoor masking requirement, and lifting it only when safe to do so.”
“When it comes to public health,” the Open Letter signers state, “we must be looking out for each other.”
The full text of the “Open Letter to PUSD In Strong Support of Tying PUSD’s Indoor Masking Requirement with CDC’s New COVID-19 Community Levels Recommendations” can be viewed at this link.
Una Lee Jost is a PUSD parent and advocate.
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I am as well. Glad that PUSD had the common sense to recognize choice at this time. Those that feel susceptible can always wear protective N95s. We recognize that of another surge comes, we can follow dept. of health recommendations. We can’t enforce blanket policies out of fear of the “what ifs.”
Thankful for last night’s outcome to go mask optional.