Maude Aldridge: Gilford School Board has failed the community

To The Daily Sun,

I am writing not only as a concerned parent but also as a physician of this community regarding the current number of COVID-19 cases at the Gilford Elementary School. Like so many other parents, I have decided to keep my child home from school this week due to the uncontrolled rise in COVID cases and lack of mitigation measures (you cannot deny that parents are no longer feeling that their children are safe in school).

It is quite obvious that without masking, cases are currently spreading rapidly within classrooms. A lot of other local schools have implemented masking in response to rising community COVID transmission or at least have mandated masking after a positive case within a classroom to prevent spread. The random COVID protocol that Gilford School Board members invented at the start of the year (based more on political beliefs than public health recommendations) is inappropriate given the current rates of COVID-19 in the community and the school dashboard is a reflection of it’s failure to keep children safe.

The Gilford School District should be leading by example and instead is an embarrassment as other schools are able to limit transmission within their school. The failure to stop the spread of COVID within the school is also letting the entire Gilford community down. As the holidays are approaching, I hope the school board will reconsider the current protocol as soon as possible, thinking not just about the children who attend GES but the family members that they are going to interact with.

It is time to admit that masking is necessary (although sadly it is too late for the children who have already brought COVID home from school) and that the protocol has failed the students and this community.

And please don’t tell me to send my kid to school with a mask if I am worried. If you don’t know by now that masks work very well to protect others and work best if all wear them, you don’t deserve to be making decisions that affect the health of our children. What values are we teaching our children if we don’t teach them to care for one another?

Temporary increase in masking would also give students such as my son a chance to become fully vaccinated now that the Pfizer vaccine has been approved for the younger age group.

Please follow Department of Health and Human Services guidelines designed to keep students safe and implement masking for all until after the holidays and the current surge is down.

If you argue that parents don’t want masks, then let parents have a say by letting them vote on this issue (as you are aware, other schools who have done this have overwhelmingly voted in favor of masking).

It is time to own up to your mistakes and that your inaction on this matter is becoming negligent and a public health threat.

I look forward to hearing your responses to all of the concerned parents including myself.

Maude Aldridge

Gilford