I saw that Summit County decided to end the mask mandate. I was thrilled to see this, until I saw that children ages 2-11 must still wear face coverings in indoor spaces and that our students will still be required to wear them.

I’ve been told that face coverings in schools were a stopgap until vaccines were available. Well, vaccines have been readily available for children 5 and older for months, and there is still no change to this policy. And now, they will not even set a metric for when this requirement can be removed. Do they intend to keep this forever?

The article in the Summit Daily stated that the county commissioners received feedback from businesses and one ski area that were tired of enforcing the mandate. The commissioners were happy to see it removed since it caused “front-line staff extra stress.”

What about the extra stress this puts on students and teachers at schools? It feels like the commissioners are doing everything to appease our tourists and businesses and not thinking about the needs of the community. How is there less risk in going to a music hall or a bar at full capacity wearing no mask than there is for a student at school? Our students are around the same people every day. In addition, children are much less affected by COVID-19 than other age groups. The policy does not make sense.

Our neighbors in Eagle County led the way in removing the mask mandate about a week ago. In addition, the mandate for masks in schools expired Jan. 21. What is so different about their student population that allowed this requirement to be removed? When are we going to think about the children of this community?