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School kids in New York could ditch their COVID masks while outdoors this week. In Oregon, masks will be optional at school starting March 19. Even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has relaxed mask guidance across the country for public settings 鈥� including schools.

And while Washington Gov. Jay Inslee set the statewide indoor mask mandate to end March 12, union leaders from nine King County school districts are pushing to make masks mandatory at school until at least May 1.

A Dori Monson Show listener sent a copy of the school leaders鈥� March 1 letter, signed by union leaders who say they represent more than 13,000 educators from Bellevue, Federal Way, Highline, Kent, Lake Washington, Renton, Seattle, Shoreline, and Tukwila school districts.

鈥淢asks contribute to feelings of safety and normalcy that schools provide our students. Removing masks will significantly disrupt that sense of normalcy, and educators will struggle to explain to students why we are removing masks so soon,鈥� the educators wrote to King County Health Officer Dr. Jeff Duchin and interim Director Dennis Worsham.

The letter goes on to say that 鈥減rematurely allowing the mask requirement to expire in King County schools could cause serious harm.鈥� Allowing mask removal earlier, school union officials claim, will 鈥渞esult in significant anxiety for many students, families, and educators, and exacerbate rather than help with the mental health crisis for them.”

鈥淪econd, we believe the negative impacts of lifting the mask mandate would be most heavily felt by our Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities as well as by people with disabilities,鈥� it continues.

The final point made in the letter is making masks optional before May 1 could prompt educators to 鈥済o on leave, which would worsen our current educator staffing shortage and unusually high number of student absences.鈥�

鈥淪o March 12 is bad, but May 1 is good?鈥� Dori asked.

Like many teachers require of their students with homework: 鈥淪how us your work. Tell us how you came up with May 1,鈥� Dori challenged.

鈥淚f kids want to keep masks, if teachers want to keep masks, go ahead,鈥� he continued. 鈥淏ut to force children to wear masks when there is no reason to do so? That is just teachers鈥� unions being cruel.鈥�

Listen to Dori鈥檚 entire segment on King County educators鈥� unions pushing for at least two more months of student masking:

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from noon – 3 p.m. on 成人X站 Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.