Signed Letter Sent To President Biden And Governor Evers Also Says The Parents Will Not Comply With Any Future Lockdown Of Their Children
'We have never and will never co-parent with the government' - Via 38 Wisconsin parent groups who are rejecting new mask mandates and lockdowns on their children. Click To TweetJuly 30, 2021
An open letter, signed by 38 Wisconsin parent groups, was delivered on Friday to Governor Tony Evers and President Joe Biden. Their letter announces that the parents outright reject and will fight any future mask mandate or lockdown forced on their children. The groups represent over 20,000 families in Wisconsin.
The 38 Wisconsin groups write to Biden and Evers, “Your renewed calls for lockdowns, enforced mask mandates, and masking in schools is not rooted in science and is objectively cruel to the most vulnerable in our society, our children.”
“Effective immediately we will not: 1. Mask our children in schools 2. Allow you to use your private sector counterparts to enforce invasive mask mandates on our children in various stores or at community activities 3. Subject our children to any further local, regional, or national lockdowns or movement restriction”
“Simply put, these are not your children. They are ours and they too, are Americans with rights. They are our responsibility and our most beloved. They are not yours. We have never and will never co-parent with the government.”
The letter was prompted by rekindled nationwide discussion about masking and restrictions. Politicians and the mainstream media have been warning of the spread of the “delta variant” of COVID-19 and are starting to suggest bringing back old restrictions and guidelines because of it.
This week the Biden Administration and the CDC began recommending that people mask up, even if one has been vaccinated for COVID-19.
“In areas with substantial and high transmission, CDC recommends fully vaccinated people wear masks in public, indoor settings to help prevent the spread of the delta variant, and protect others,” says CDC Director Rochelle Walensky. “This includes schools.”
Biden said this week that “more vaccinations and mask wearing in the areas most impacted by the Delta variant will enable us to avoid the kind of lockdowns, shutdowns, school closures, and disruptions we faced in 2020.”
It’s understandable, however, why parents are concerned about these kinds of regulations coming back. Throughout the pandemic, the federal government has often suddenly changed their guidance on how to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, without transparent science to back up their changing tunes.
Similarly, Governor Evers has gone back on every promise he has made throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. He has promised to not require masking, not shut down the state, and not try to reschedule our elections due to the virus, and has broken every promise soon after making it.
“We have watched the last week unfold in abject horror,” the groups write, “observing our government institutions and leaders failing our children at every turn, again.”
Children were pulled out of school for nearly an entire year of their education during 2020. For schools that did reopen during the year, COVID-19 measures were strict and often meant students were unpredictably sent home because of virus exposure. In the case of Dane County, as schools prepared to reopen for the fall 2020 semester, the county government ordered schools shut down again with no compelling reasons why.
Many students were left without a proper education as their classes went virtual. The shutdowns have caused countless students to fall behind in their grades. Medical data also finds that the school shutdowns have likely lead to an increased risk of suicide among students nationwide.
Yet, data has shown that children are not severely affected by the coronavirus. Many studies, like those published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, have shown that young children are at low risk for developing COVID-19 and don’t seem to be the primary spreaders of the virus in school. Another study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases has shown that children are unlikely to be COVID-19 spreaders in their homes. In the past year and a half of the pandemic, only around 300 kids 17 years and under have died from the virus. In Wisconsin, only three children on record have died of COVID-19.
That’s all good news to kids, but it hasn’t stopped schools and public health officials from mandating masks for children. The mandates have done a good deal of harm to children, studies find. In a German study of around 26,000 school kids, approximately 68% had problems wearing face masks in schools, ranging from impaired learning, to headaches, to fatigue, to reluctance to go to school. Other research has shown that kids who wear face masks are inhaling unsafe levels of carbon dioxide
The 38 parent groups write that they believe President Biden and Governor Evers are aware of the damages that the mask mandates and lockdowns have caused, but “continue to play political games with our children, despite our efforts to work with you over the last twelve months. We are here to inform you that this ends today.”
“Simply put,” they write, “these are not your children. They are ours and they too, are Americans with rights. They are our responsibility and our most beloved. They are not yours.”
“We have never and will never co-parent with the government.”