Masks at school drop off....

[QueenofmyPrinces]

My son is in Year 2 and during school drop-off there is a 1 way system and staggered starting times to allow for 2m spacing. There are usually about 3 members of staff manning the gate to make sure the correct distance is kept between parents.

However, my son was sent home tonight with a letter from the teacher to say that all parents are now required to wear masks at pick up and drop offs.

I don’t know how I feel about it....ok, it’s no hardship at all, but it feels like now it’s yet another thing we are being instructed to do. Day by day it feels like we are losing more of ourselves.

I know that sounds dramatic and in the middle of a pandemic it sounds ridiculous....but it’s just never ending isn’t it.

Our children are all mixing with each other every day, with no social distancing, yet we have to wear a mask to follow a one way system that keeps parents 2m apart anyway that takes only about a minute to enter the school grounds, drop the child off and leave the grounds.

It feels like there’s no end in sight and between this and the Rule of 6 it feels like we are slowly having our rights taken away from us.

I know I sound silly.....but I’m just fed up.

I have been following the rules from the start but this just feels like the straw that broke the camel’s back for me.

I wonder how long it will be until teachers are wearing masks in school and then our children will be too....

Like I said, I just feel a bit down about it all.

Our school has this rule, even though you don't go near the teachers/other children, and are outside (where transmission is supposed to be very low).

Despite this, DD came home with a temperature/sore throat, and has a barking cough, which she's passed onto me. Within one day of coughing I've needed to be prescribed high-dose steroids (Montelukast and four different inhalers aren't enough when I get a cold).

We are awaiting Covid results, but until the cough goes, I will not be able to wear a mask.

Adults and students are routinely wearing masks around my college in the corridors and communal areas - I’ve never failed to recognise anybody yet. Yes, maybe at the height of winter when everyone is wrapped up but we’re not there yet! I’ve even taught students wearing masks and managed to work out who they were. It’s really hyperbolic to claim not to recognise people. Plenty of people are wearing masks as part of their day to day working lives and finding it’s really not so bad. A bit annoying but no worse than that’s.

Also OP don't forget the very real risk that a kidnapper could quickly put a mask on a child's face and then nobody would know who the child is because it's winter and they have a coat on and we can't recognise faces by eyes, only mouths!!!!!!

Nobody could put a mask on, walk into our school yard, and have access to the children without being questioned. If there was any likelihood of that happening I'd take my children out of the school in a millisecond. If that's what you genuinely believe could happen at your school you need to take it further, urgently.

At our drop off and pick-up at we just walk through the school gate, walk past all the children that are gathered in their class groups until we eventually reach the group where our own child is, collect them off the teacher and then leave again.

So yes, anyone could put a mask on and walk into the school grounds.

Anyhow - I know teachers aren’t going to hand over children over to masked strangers because they will be familiar enough with the parent to recognise them, and no child is going to leave with an adult they don’t know, masked or unmasked. I know there is no risk with that.

My concern is based on the fact that after school there are loads of young children all running around the grassland, messing about in the park, running ahead of their parents etc and they are surrounded by adults who have their faces covered. Like I said, the worry (although very, very unlikely) is that anyone could potentially grab one of those children knowing they couldn’t be identified.

In normal circumstances if parents saw an individual walking around the school grounds with a mask on covering a large part of their face it would raise questions about their motives and potentially be considered a safety risk - not now though as anyone can be near school grounds with unsupervised young children and wear a mask that hides their features without it being something to be suspicious of.

At the end of term last year all parents were sent out warning letters because a white van was circulating the area and there had been four reports of the male drivers trying to encourage children to get in the van - everyone was obviously on hyper alert and it was worrying.

And now it feels like we are in another situation where there is potential (no matter how unlikely) for this new mask rule to put our children at risk, and it just makes me feel uneasy.

Is it so difficult to wear a face mask when there might not have a social distancing between the parents? If you would like to keep the school open for all pupils, you should follow the rule from the school.

A minor inconvenience and if it stops spread of viruses, including flu, even it the tiniest way, it's worth doing.

Is it so difficult to wear a face mask when there might not have a social distancing between the parents? If you would like to keep the school open for all pupils, you should follow the rule from the school.

I’ve already said it’s no hardship and that I will do it - In fact I think I said that in my original post? I have also acknowledged that it’s certainly needed where social distancing can’t apply.

Anyhow - I know teachers aren’t going to hand over children over to masked strangers because they will be familiar enough with the parent to recognise them, and no child is going to leave with an adult they don’t know, masked or unmasked. I know there is no risk with that.

Previously: “There are at least 100 adults at drop-off - do you really expect every parent, including teachers, to know the faces of each of those people?”
I honestly have no idea what point you’re trying to argue here, and evidently neither do you as you keep changing tack. Either the teachers recognise the parents, or they can’t be expected to recognise them ~ which is it? “Is it a “kidnapper’s wet dream” or is there no risk of that?

My concern is based on the fact that after school there are loads of young children all running around the grassland, messing about in the park, running ahead of their parents etc and they are surrounded by adults who have their faces covered

So that’s masks outside of the school yard, and nothing to do with being asked to wear masks for pick up and drop offs. I take mine off as soon as I’m out of the gate and through the main group of other parents. The school can’t tell anyone that they have to keep their mask on once they’re out of the yard.

In normal circumstances if parents saw an individual walking around the school grounds with a mask on covering a large part of their face it would raise questions about their motives and potentially be considered a safety risk
Of course that would look as suspicious as hell, and people would be right to be concerned. But that’s not the situation here, and these are not normal circumstances.

Anyway, apparently you think this is a kidnap risk, except that you don’t think it’s really a kidnap risk, and that’s because the school have asked for masks in the yard which apparently creates a risk after school in the park.

Nobody enjoys wearing a mask, nobody want to have to wear one, but you’ve got to admit that the kidnapping hyperbole is a bit silly

However, my son was sent home tonight with a letter from the teacher to say that all parents are now required to wear masks at pick up and drop offs.

Are you actually treading on the school grounds when you drop off and collect? If not then they cannot enforce this.

We’ve been kept off school property completely. They have put fences all around and the teachers will no longer talk to us, nor answer any email it seems. I’ll be interested if they try and force us to wear masks whilst waiting on public pavements outside the school. I’d be interested to know if they could legally enforce that? 🤔

Cross posted with @Dawnlassie

Well, here in Australia in Victoria, we have to wear masks all the time. It helps stop the spread.

I’d be interested to know if they could legally enforce that?

No, they the school cannot have anyone arrested for not wearing a mask in a public area that is nothing to do with them.

They can't 'legally' enforce you wearing one on school grounds either. They can ask that people comply with their request, but it's not enshrined in law.

@BigBadVoodooHat

I’d be interested to know if they could legally enforce that?

No, they the school cannot have anyone arrested for not wearing a mask in a public area that is nothing to do with them.

They can't 'legally' enforce you wearing one on school grounds either. They can ask that people comply with their request, but it's not enshrined in law.

Do people want schools to stay open or not?

One of the mothers I know wasn’t wearing a mask this morning (I saw her dropping her daughter off whilst I was talking to my friend) and I hung behind to wait for her and I asked her if anyone had questioned her about not wearing a mask, to which she said that nobody had mentioned. I assumed it was because the system works like it does in supermarkets, they just have to assume that people who aren’t wearing one are exempt so can’t question them.

I would say that compliance appeared to be about 50% this morning but I wonder if that will increase as more and more parents start seeing them in use.

I am following the law @Badbadbunny so no need to get snippy. I was interested if they could force us to wear a mask whilst socially distanced away from school grounds. The answer seems to be no, which is fine.

Do people want schools to stay open or not?

Who knows?! I certainly do, so putting a mask on for a couple of minutes either end of the day is something I can be bothered to rail against. Might help, might not ~ either way, it's no great hardship for me.

Only approx 1/6 of the parents at our school are wearing them, even though the school have politely asked that we do. I suppose it's the age-old 'you can't tell me what to do!' attitude that lots of parents have always had with regard to schools.

^^ Can't be bothered to rail against

Only approx 1/6 of the parents at our school are wearing them, even though the school have politely asked that we do. I suppose it's the age-old 'you can't tell me what to do!

I wonder how may of those are being stubborn and cutting off their noses to spite their faces, I.e they just want to make a point OR do they genuinely think masks don’t make any difference in the scenario of picking children up from school due to being outside?

@QueenofmyPrinces I don't know about your school, but in our school I honestly think a lot of parents don't give a shit (primary).

One of the school mums asked how to get her DD a test, as she had symptoms. She had lots of advice. As soon as I said the siblings would also need to be kept off, she decided she wouldn't be testing as it was just a 'cold'. She may be right. Unfortunately we are having to isolate due to symptoms, which may be a cold, but then with other parents with the same attitude, any CV cases would spread like wild-fire anyway.

I wonder how may of those are being stubborn and cutting off their noses to spite their faces, I.e they just want to make a point OR do they genuinely think masks don’t make any difference in the scenario of picking children up from school due to being outside?

I don't know why that matters, to be honest.

I'm not especially convinced that wearing a mask in the yard will make a difference to infection control, but I go along with the request because schools have got enough on their plate just now and I see no value in sticking two fingers up at their reasonable request.

Does anyone really care whether the refusers are refusing on a point of stubborness or a point of belief?

WishIWasSomewhereElse

It’s so difficult isn’t it and such a minefield in terms of “do these symptoms warrant testing” against the implications of keeping a child off for what is most likely a cold, I.e child and siblings missing educations and parents not being allowed to go to work.

I was dropping my son off at the end of the last week and one mom was having a to-do with the teacher on the gate as the teacher had told the mom she couldn’t bring her child onto the premises as he was coughing.

The mom was arguing that it was just a normal cough and her son is prone to them, but the teacher wasn’t having any of it and told the mother she couldn’t bring her son into the school until he’d been tested. The mom was quite upset (coming out as frustrated anger) and said she had a job to get to and it wasn’t fair the child was being made to miss school and she was being expected to put her child through a test when he simply had a cough like he always get.

I didn’t hear the end of it as I left whilst it was still going on but it got quite heated. I would imagine that the mother had to take the child home and phone her employer to say she wouldn’t be in.

I do understand why the rules are in place but it must cause a lot of difficulties for some families. Life is very hard for a lot of people right now

I wonder how may of those are being stubborn and cutting off their noses to spite their faces, I.e they just want to make a point OR do they genuinely think masks don’t make any difference in the scenario of picking children up from school due to being outside?

Why does it matter? They've been asked to wear one, so unless they have a medical exemption, their opinion shouldn't come into it. If they have such an aversion to wearing a mask they should avoid places where masks are required (legal exemptions not withstanding)

Why does it matter? They've been asked to wear one, so unless they have a medical exemption, their opinion shouldn't come into it

I agree, it doesn’t matter - it doesn’t stop me being curious though.

I wonder how long it will be until teachers are wearing masks in school

Many of the teachers at my school wear a mask in the playground at drop off and collection. Some did it voluntarily from the star; all now wear a mask or visor at those times since we started asking parents to wear one on the playground. We did this as after a week it was clear that it wasn't possible to maintain SDing in the playground at those times. Some parents were already wearing them, after it being strongly advised via school, almost all are. We don't challenge those who don't wear them as we know some may have genuine reasons.

We don't wear masks when teaching. It is now really permitted if following the Government's guidelines tbh, except in busy corridors at secondary.

Several do chose to wear a visor when teaching as it goes just a little way to protecting those of us who are clinically vulnerable or who live with someone who is. Have to say that not a single child has commented on my visor since we went back. At pick up and drop off no child has been upset or concerned about their parent or teaches wearing a mask during that time. I had special ones printed to use at school which a few of the children have commented on.