The primary oppositions to mandatory masking were that:

1. Parents are the best at deciding personal health choices for their children and not a one-size-fits-all bureaucracy;

2. Typical masks do not work well against COVID-19 transmission;

3. Optional masking has worked successfully all summer in Anchorage Summer School, with only one publicized case out of 9,000 students;

4. Masks are potentially damaging to the physical and mental health of children;

5. The Centers for Disease Control has been so wrong so often and so political they cannot be trusted (the primary justification for the newest CDC mask recommendation was a single Massachusetts event that was not school related, and the school environment has many special safeguards);

6. The World Health Organization does not fully agree with the CDC;

7. Even the CDC reports that fewer than 1 in 200,000 or .005% of children infected have died from COVID-19, which is less than the children who die from influenza (the flu) most years, and we have never mandated masks due to the flu;

8. While the Delta variant is much more contagious, it is no more deadly, and the vaccines we have do a very good job of preventing serious illness;

9. Mandatory masking just will not work for the youngest children, at least those in kindergarten and first grade, and is harmful to them educationally, mentally and physically.

10. The school district’s process for approving exceptions to the masking rules is not working well, and children with special needs are suffering;

11. Some district staff will likely use the guidelines to justify forcing mask-wearing even outside the buildings and in spite of the identified exceptions;

12. Just like last year, because of other non-student-based influences, once a policy is in place, the school district will delay or refuse to change even if the science clearly no longer supports it;

13. Many parents who can afford to or can homeschool so will withdraw their children from ASD if masks are mandatory.

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