End Mask Mandates On Children

END Harmful Masking of Louisiana Children.

The purpose of this petition is to Demand our rights under the 14th Amendment of the United States of America Constitution be acknowledged as upheld in Troxel vs Granville Supreme Court Case. The Louisiana school systems continue to institute scientifically unproven measures which include violation of established OSHA safety standards that are harmful to our children.

Eight hours of masking during the school day causes extreme mental, physical, and health-related issues for our children. According to OSHA's own guidelines on carbon dioxide exposure, masking places every child, teacher, and faculty member at risk.

Our goal is to provide facts to the parents & Family members, school board members, and faculty, who deserve to know the harm caused by these over-reaching regulations.

To continue to force these mandates We the parents and Families of all children demand hard scientific evidence be supplied that Masking for 8 Hours per day has been tested and proven without issue to harm children in anyway whatsoever. Failure to provide written, factual science with in 72 hours is seen as noncompliance.

As concerned parents, we strongly urge All Louisiana schools & board members, to end the mask mandate placed on our innocent children. Despite what likely started as good intentions, the mask mandates are causing demonstrated harm to our children. We understand the initial decisions and responses were made from fear and anxiety to protect our people. However, after 19 months we now see the harmful results of masking our children. When masked, it strikes at the very core of a child’s spirit, ability to learn and breath.

1 – Troxel VS Granville (Supreme court et. al 2000) – Under the protection of the 14th Amendment, all parents have a fundamental right to oversee the care, custody, and control of a child.

2- Masked children suffer carbon dioxide exposure above OSHA permissible exposure limits.
Carbon dioxide is classified as an asphyxiant gas. The OSHA limit for carbon dioxide exposure has been a maximum of 5,000ppm during 8 hour period (OSHA, 2020) & (Halpern et. al). Depending upon ideal use, precise fit and useful life of the mask.1. Measurements on students have shown carbon dioxide levels at 9,000ppm-10,000ppm, and in some cases as high as 25,000 PPM well above OSHA limits for adult workers. These ranges are scientifically proven to cause undesirable symptoms such as fatigue, headache, and loss of concentration. By forcing children to wear masks, we trade a possible/potential risk of COVID transmission for a proven/known risk of excessive exposure to harmful asphyxiant gas. If we are willing to protect our labor force with OSHA limits, should we not protect our children?

3 – The Governor’s mask mandate contains an exemption for All organizations. (Edwards et. al, 2021) According to Edward’s own mask mandate, there is a built-in exemption for all organizations, Section 3 E) Citations under this Section shall be written only to businesses or organizations, other than religious organizations that fail to enforce the requirement to wear face coverings. Operators of businesses and organizations are entitled to rely on the representations of their customers, patrons, or employees regarding whether they qualify for an exception from the face covering requirements. Businesses and organizations that rely on such a representation shall not be deemed to be in violation of this Emergency Proclamation.

The mask mandate causes quantifiable harm to our school children, and mask mandates do not produce a measurable benefit to children.

4 – BESE has not adopted a new mask mandate (BESE Admin, 2021) BESE Board (Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education) issues rules over the Governor’s mandates. This means that the buck stops with BESE. And yet, although they are the elected experts on our children’s educational interests, BESE has not adopted a new mask mandate. As such, they are operating under an expired mandate and by the governor’s order only.

5 -- Mandatory Masking of School Children is a Bad Idea (Sood et. al, 2021). Masks reduce effective learning. We know that facial expressions, verbal cues, reading lips, etc. are a linchpin to effective communication. Covering one’s face confuses verbal communication and suppresses nonverbal forms of communication, especially during the critical formative years where young children establish the foundation for these life-long skills. Parents and children are reporting problems with their ability to follow and keep up with teachers, in addition to an alarming increase in need for speech and language therapy. Our children are regressing in the classroom and not reaching their full potential. The use of masks or respirators is not recommended for extended use or outside of clinical or laboratory settings. It causes counter-productive harm to classroom advancement, particularly in an elementary education setting.

6 - Remote chance of death or serious injury to children from COVID. (Haseman et. Al, 2021) This virus has taken the lives of less tahn 700 children out of 73 million children, or an approximately .0000095% chance of a child dying from Covid. In Louisiana, we have lost 16 beautiful souls to COVID, yet this pale in comparison to others like abortion, auto wrecks, and disease. In Louisiana, our rates of children are 0.0000145% chance of death. May God Bless the children who have passed away and give peace to their mourning parents. Although the loss of one child’s life is too may, is this infinitesimal risk worth harmful mandates to all children? For example, a child’s chance of death or bodily harm from a car accident – even when using safety restraints -- is exponentially higher than death from COVID.

As parents, we must ask ourselves: Now that we know these facts, at what point does this become a major moral issue when we fail to act in the best interest of our children? Indeed, our faith teaches us that it is a mortal sin to (1) cause grave harm; (2) with knowledge of causing harm; and (3) the action or inaction is deliberate. We cannot allow inaction to continue to cause grave harm to the health and well-being of our children.

Our children must be allowed to breathe and live according to our God-given right of free will. We, the parents, choose whether they are to be masked and or vaccinated. This is not a governmental right or function, it is that of you, the parents.

Parents and supporters, please pray about this, stand up, be courageous, and fight for our children. We must have more control and input in the decisions made by our education system, BESE and all School Boards. Other issues that should concern every parent and that we will fight for on behalf of our children are i.e.; the curriculum and vaccine mandates.

This petition serves as official notice to All School Boards in Louisiana. Please cancel the mandatory mask mandate and make it optional by October 24, 2021.

Our options if our voices and concerns are not heard by our Church leaders and Catholic School Board:

· Legal Action on Board Members as in other states · Withhold stewardships · Withhold donations · Homeschool

We are loyal to our State and to our schools, teachers and faculty, we ask All school leaders to be loyal to us. We want our rights as parents to be heard. We want normalcy for our children. It is in fact the entire basis of our State Flag, the Pelican sacrifices for her young!

Peace be with all of you.

Please add your email address so we can win this battle together at www.LouisianaFreedom.com Donations not necessary.

Footnotes: 1- Washington, CERTIORARI Supreme Court Of. “Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57 (2000).” Justia Law, 5 June 2000, https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/530/57/.

2. OSHA Guideline: https://www.osha.gov/chemicaldata/183 2a- Halpern P, Raskin Y, Sorkine P, Oganezov A. Exposure to extremely high concentrations of carbon dioxide - a clinical description of a mass casualty incident. Ann Emerg Med. 43(2):196-9; Feb 2004 2b-Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, https://www.cdc.gov/transportationsafety/seatbelts/index.html
3. edwards, John Bel. Covid-19 Public Health Emergency ... - Gov.louisiana.gov. https://gov.louisiana.gov/assets/Proclamations/2021/167JBE2021StateofEmergencyCOVIDSigned.pdf.
4. BESE Admin. “Statement from BESE President Regarding Governor's Lifting of Statewide Mask Mandate in K-12 Schools.” Default, 25 May 2021, https://bese.louisiana.gov/about-bese/bese-news/2021/05/26/statement-from-bese-president-regarding-governor's-lifting-of-statewide-mask-mandate-in-k-12-schools.
5. Sood, Neeraj, and Jay Bhattacharya. “Mandatory Masking of School Children Is a Bad Idea.” USC Schaeffer, 20 July 2021, https://healthpolicy.usc.edu/article/mandatory-masking-of-school-children-is-a-bad-idea/.
6. Haseman, Janie, and Aleszu Bajak. “How Bad Is Covid-19 in Kids? See the Latest Data and Charts on Kids Cases; Hospitalizations; Deaths.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 8 Oct. 2021, https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/graphics/2021/10/08/covid-19-kids-cases-hospitalizations-deaths/8361479002/.