Skip to main content

To: Dare County Board of Education

We are your healthcare workers. We are your front lines.

BOE voted masks back in. Unfortunately thank you email went out days later.

Why is this important?

We are local Doctors, Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants’, Nurses, First Responders & Healthcare Workers. We are parents in our community. We are tired. We are doing everything we can, working tirelessly, to keep our community safe and healthy. We are asking that you please help us to keep our kids safe and make masks mandatory this fall in our schools.
In the past month, the pandemic has worsened as the delta variant has spread across NC and the country. Covid-19 rates and hospitalizations have increased. Pediatric Covid-19 cases are rising nationwide and locally. Local pediatric hospitals are overrun with Covid-19 and RSV.
Universal indoor masking for grades K-12 is currently recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and the CDC. Universal masking is part of the layered mitigation strategy that works to slow the spread of COVID-19. Masking helps keep kids in school and keeps children, teachers, and school staff from becoming ill. Masking will help enable more consistent in-person learning this fall.
Children under the age of 12 do not currently have access to the Covid-19 vaccine. Some of our children are immunocompromised and are especially vulnerable to Covid-19. Without a mask, these children are significantly at risk. We need to take steps to ensure a safe environment for ALL children, including those who are more vulnerable due to pre-existing conditions or social determinants of health.
Along with the physical risks, the detriments of the inevitable school closures and quarantining that will occur without universal masking are numerous. We, as healthcare providers, have seen a large increase in anxiety and depression in our youth. We have seen an increase in pediatric obesity due to children being home unsupervised because many parents cannot afford to stay home. Child abuse increased across the nation from children being home more in an unsafe environment. School is a safe haven for many children across the country, and our community is not immune to that.
We are a small community with already limited healthcare resources. If changes are not made soon, there will come a point where the sheer volume of illness overwhelms our healthcare resources completely and patients—children—will not have access to care. We need every healthcare provider we have and many of us are parents. The board needs to consider that if we become ill, we will be unavailable to serve the community. If our children become ill and we need to be home with them, we will be unavailable to serve the community. There is no one waiting in the wings to fill our positions. The community will simply be without care.
Again, we ask, please help us keep our children of Dare County safe and be the leadership that our children need.

Sincerely,
Marielle Silk, FNP; Kellie Flock Byrne, PA and Sarah Summerton, FNP

Updates

2021-09-02 12:11:08 -0400

Petition is successful with 887 signatures

2021-09-02 08:43:14 -0400

We want to thank everybody for signing our petition! We delivered it on Sunday and send a thank you email shortly after that. We realize people are getting emails this morning but we assure you we did email it on Sunday. Thank you again for all of your support!

2021-08-25 16:30:00 -0400

500 signatures reached

2021-08-24 08:13:08 -0400

100 signatures reached

2021-08-23 18:49:49 -0400

50 signatures reached

2021-08-23 17:05:44 -0400

25 signatures reached

2021-08-23 15:33:51 -0400

10 signatures reached