There is no legislation stating masks are compulsory. The school needs to seek your consent for mask wearing. You do not give it.
School are leaving themselves open to legal action.
Set the ball rolling
Hello,
I have recently sent an email to my son's secondary school regarding face coverings and the harms that can happen to children from wearing a mask. I received a reply explaining that they've taken my points on board but are following the government guidance.
All of the points that I raised basically fell on deaf ears and no consideration has been taken into account of the actual harms that can be caused.
My son has said he doesn't want to wear a mask but he doesn't know anyone else who will refuse to wear one. When his school made face coverings mandatory last winter because we were in lockdown and they had to wear one in the corridors, it wasn't such a big issue for him as many kids weren't wearing them in the corridors even if they weren't exempt so my son didn't stick out. However, now that the school has made them mandatory in classrooms, he could potentially be that one in class without one. And that is tough!
I do not want my son to wear one but I've explained to him that whatever he decides to do then it is choice as he has got to follow through with his decision.
I feel sick at what they're doing to the kids and how many parents think its ok to let their kids go through this.
Good afternoon Lydia
Our son's school (he's in Year 8) have been equally as tone deaf. I have corresponded with the head 3x now, and we didn't send our son in today (absolutely something we didn't want to have to do, nor take lightly).
Their policy is enforced masks unless you have an exemption but the kicker is, they only recognise 2 of the 6 legal ones on the Gov website! I told them that this was unlawful.
They even had the audacity to contact us this morning to find out why he was absent. My wife gave the poor reception both barrels, although I followed up with another email reiterating that they had put us in an impossible position.
I need to explore our options (assuming they don't see reason and relent). I imagine I will need to get legal advice.
Best regards
Simon
Simon not a lot l can add here other than to add my sincere and heartfelt empathy to the hell you must be going through as a family.
Gail,
I agree with the island thought - I've been hoping to find a less hysterical country to hide in!
So I wanted to add my experience from sunny Spain. My daughter is 15 and attends an international school here. They are masked from 9 to 4:30 each day including anywhere at school as, in case you weren't aware, we have to mask up anywhere outside our house over here.
They home schooled during the first lockdown but have been back at school ever since.
I walk the dog in the mountains and it's painful to see the absolute obedience to masking up over here. I suppose one sometimes forgets that they are still a very young democracy and are used to authoritarianism.
On the plus side it was 70 degrees (Fahrenheit) today and diesel is still less than a pound a litre.
Mask wearing outside a clinical setting is ridiculous and has no proper science behind it. A child having to wear a mask for up to 9.5 hours a day is an utter abomination and no parent should sanction it. If the child were mine he/she whould be withdrawn from the school and a more enlightened educational establishment be sought.
