To be horrified at kids being 'labelled' like this ?

[espressotogo]

DD senior school age goes back tomorrow - no exemptions and she will be masked up as requested despite my absolute disgust at the policy. The school has asserted that children with exemptions will need to provide proof and will be made to wear a badge or lanyard to show their exemption on school property and transport.
AIBU to be horrified that children will be 'badged' like this - surely not wearing the mask is sufficient to show their exemption for a policy that is advisory and with zero proof of efficacy ?

May I refer you to Daryl Huff's The Use and Abuse of Statistics in which he says, to paraphrase, Tell me what you want to prove and I'll find the statistics to prove it.
The pandemic has shown how this works, you can 'prove' what you want to prove by selective use of the numbers and by only collecting convenient numbers

Yep, that notion was one of my lessons when I studied A Level statistics! It was a good lesson and sticks.

surely not wearing the mask is sufficient to show their exemption for a policy that is advisory and with zero proof of efficacy ?

I had to start getting an earlier bus to work as the one I took was also the one secondary schoolkids took to school.

They'd wear their masks getting on the bus then were taking them off as they were climbing the bus stairs. I once had to sit on the top deck and at least 50% had taken their masks off.

"What I meant was that my DD doesn't have an exemption and will be wearing a mask. My concern is for those that do."

This sounds like a variation on the sudden concern for vulnerable children threads. I wonder how much thought you gave to the difficulties of those that are exempt, before covid.

@espressotogo

I would say that schools are under incredible pressure, and we should be doing all we can do support them - and keep them open.

@Iggly

There is plenty of evidence to suggest that mask wearing is harmful to the education of children

I’ve heard it all now.

I suspect that most teenagers get on with the situation more equably and with less whining than some of the posters on this forum.

noblegiraffe

WHY ARE YOU IGNORING THE REQUESTED EVIDENCE?

Because it’s more comforting to remain ignorant?

Nobody likes to be proven wrong 🤷🏻‍♀️

www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/do-masks-actually-work-the-best-studies-suggest-they-don-t/ar-AANfurl

Because there are also plenty of studies that suggest that they don't !
And the ones posted are not conclusive if you read them

Besides the original OP was primarily about children being labelled

Besides the original OP was primarily about children being labelled

So your 4 subsequent posts asking for evidence that masks make a difference should be ignored, particularly as you've been provided with evidence that you don't want to have to engage with?

Stop using children like mine.

I work once a week in a secondary school as a volunteer. each week I walk in and sit waiting for my supervisor to come and collect me I see students walking in with a mask and the moment they feel they are away from the reception/teachers the mask goes of again.

So no simply not wearing one is not enough.

It's odd that you have a DC at high school and yet write as though you've never met a teen or been in a high school or care one jot about teachers' or other pupils' health

As for the numbers in Scotland and Wales, unless there is a hard border between those countries and England, then Boris' lax policies (impacted by the numpties who don't believe in masks/vaccines/Covid) mean the numbers go up across the UK.

@espressotogo

It sounds like you're firmly set in your views (which sound an awfully lot like UsforThem/HART) however I'll reply

There is little point doing a websearch to bring up an individual study or media article that says what you want it to

It has been demonstrated that most of the mask wearing literature is very low quality & therefore doesn't tell you very much. The limited high quality evidence we do have shows that masks reduce the amount of viral particles expelled from an infectious person, this will have a direct benefit to children.

Encouarging mask wearing, with an accessible way kids can exempt themselves if they can't wear one, will help reduce risk to school pupils and lower the risk of school closures.

I work at a university. Staff and students are asked to wear a lanyard if they are exempt. It doesn't say why they are exempt and stops them having to explain their exemption every 5 minutes. For everyone else we have to remind them to wear a mask unless they're eating or drinking. It would get very tedious for people with exemptions if we didn't have the lanyards.

BTW as I am in the school as a volunteer I wear a lanyard.

The techers all wear a lanyard the receptionists all wear a lanyard.
The student that is that day on duty wears a lanyard
the students who has a pass to go elsewhere wears a lanyard

A Lanyard is not a obvious label it simply means you have exemptions not specifically what they are.

I would also add that much of the outrage seems to come from adults (many who don't actually have children at school) who generally oppose any measure to reduce coronavirus transmission, and pupils seem to be getting on with it without all the fuss.

Calm down dear, be grateful the schools are staying open and that all the kids have to do is wear a measly mask or lanyard. Talk about first world problems

I'd be hopping mad if the school tried to make my kids wear a badge or lanyard. I'm glad my kids aren't older & having to wear masks all day.

@ABCDEF1234

This just sounds like a poster who doesn't want their child to wear a mask and will spout any rubbish to make it 'justifiable'. I'm going to hazard a guess they are also anti vaccine, anti covid, anti lockdown...

Aren't we all anti covid? 😂

So much assumption in one post.

This site just gets more batshit by the day.

@noblegiraffe

This sort of thing.

I think that is actually offensive. I can't imagine how people who have lost loved ones must feel reading that.

Has she had any response to it?

@Enko

I work once a week in a secondary school as a volunteer. each week I walk in and sit waiting for my supervisor to come and collect me I see students walking in with a mask and the moment they feel they are away from the reception/teachers the mask goes of again.

So no simply not wearing one is not enough.

At my son’s primary school the office staff sit with a mask under their chin. When I was at the dentist the two receptionists had masks under their chin. I think adults need to grow up and start wearing them properly to set an example.

I have a high school around the corner from me, and the kids I see when collecting my son from school wear their masks properly even though they’re no longer at school. Why can kids wear them with minimal fuss but not adults?

Also I support mask wearing in schools if they enable schools to stay open, but I don’t get why schools should be singled out. Why can’t adults wear them in all settings in they reduce transmission so much? Oh that’s right, Johnson doesn’t want to upset his libertarian backbenchers who are behaving like dickheads.

Really, the very fact that they have been worn in hospital operating theatres, dentists surgeries and pharmaceutical production facilities to maintain sterile environments and reduce contamination.
Would that be a good enough example?

Really, the very fact that they have been worn in hospital operating theatres, dentists surgeries and pharmaceutical production facilities to maintain sterile environments and reduce contamination.
Would that be a good enough example?

www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/do-masks-actually-work-the-best-studies-suggest-they-don-t/ar-AANfurl

I can google too !

I’m in the US with kids in a school district that has had strict mask requirements this entire school year (I’m not aware of any exceptions in the school of 600 kids).

We’ve had very few cases (1 in my 8 year olds year group of circa 100 kids) and masks are absolutely playing a part in that (we also have high vaccination rates among kids and the general population).

The kids wear them because the expectation is they do, they understand that wearing masks means they are in school, they can play sports (wearing masks if indoors) and they can see their friends. The adults around them support this - parents wear masks to collect kids even when outside.

I also have a 2 year old who knows he wears a mask on a bus or to go to the supermarket. Sometimes he makes a fuss because he’s 2 but in the same way that he makes a fuss about wearing shoes.

I don’t really understand the general reluctance to enforce mask wearing in schools - no one wants it but surely it’s the lesser of 2 evils.

@WorstXmasEver

I'd be hopping mad if the school tried to make my kids wear a badge or lanyard. I'm glad my kids aren't older & having to wear masks all day.

Why?

@Iggly

*May I refer you to Daryl Huff's The Use and Abuse of Statistics in which he says, to paraphrase, Tell me what you want to prove and I'll find the statistics to prove it. The pandemic has shown how this works, you can 'prove' what you want to prove by selective use of the numbers and by only collecting convenient numbers*

Yep, that notion was one of my lessons when I studied A Level statistics! It was a good lesson and sticks.

The kind of lesson that you remember getting as a member of a class, in school, being taught for an eventual exam, by a teacher that knew their stuff, you mean? Lucky you. Sounds as if it was useful.

Possibly that's the point of tightening up the measures among young adults that could make this kind of experience more likely for the equivalent students now.

If the measures are going to apply to school transport as well (as per the OP's post), then yes, some kind of visual exemption to indicate something quickly when a driver behind glass will be dealing with large groups of student passengers, will be common sense, or situations may well get a lot more difficult to handle than they need to be.

@espressotogo

Really, the very fact that they have been worn in hospital operating theatres, dentists surgeries and pharmaceutical production facilities to maintain sterile environments and reduce contamination. Would that be a good enough example?

Really, the very fact that they have been worn in hospital operating theatres, dentists surgeries and pharmaceutical production facilities to maintain sterile environments and reduce contamination.
Would that be a good enough example?

www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/do-masks-actually-work-the-best-studies-suggest-they-don-t/ar-AANfurl

I can google too !

As I said......

There is little point doing a websearch to bring up an individual study or media article that says what you want it to

It has been demonstrated that most of the mask wearing literature is very low quality & therefore doesn't tell you very much. The limited high quality evidence we do have shows that masks reduce the amount of viral particles expelled from an infectious person, this will have a direct benefit to children.

Encouarging mask wearing, with an accessible way kids can exempt themselves if they can't wear one, will help reduce risk to school pupils and lower the risk of school closures.

So you're 'worried' about them wearing a lanyard/sticker/badge and think that will mark them out as being a non-mask-wearer but don't think other pupils will notice they're not wearing a mask
OP you're hilarious