Letter to the editor: Make mask policy

I am a lifelong resident of Cloquet. I am the grandma of Cloquet students and the mom of former students. I am also a retired Cloquet district preschool teacher. When I read that the school board was considering making wearing masks optional I was shocked and dismayed.

Something so simple that can help us be safe, well, that should be the obvious decision.

Yes, the virus is mainly infecting unvaccinated people. But not only are all children under 12 unvaccinated, some people cannot be vaccinated because of medical conditions. The Delta variant is out there now because the virus mutated from its original form. It mutated in order to survive, because some people were taking steps to prevent being infected and the virus needed to change into something easier to catch.

If everyone would have done their part to avoid infection it would have had no hosts and would have died off. But now a highly contagious version is here and the school board is considering making masks optional? Irresponsible and ridiculous.

Make masks mandatory. If case counts go down substantially, remove the mask mandate. But once it spreads throughout our schools, there is little we can do. Listen to medical experts.

Katie Zack,

Cloquet