Michigan (WLNS)—Kathleen Lucas and Brittnee Senecal are parents from Ottawa and Jackson counties. Together, they’re part of an online group of hundreds of parents in what they call the Michigan Parent Alliance for Safe Schools. Their mission is simple.
“We want all kids to be safe in school, we want to protect our communities. It’s much farther than just our own families it reaches to other students, higher risk students, teachers, higher risk staff,” said Lucas.
To do this they’re asking state and medical leaders to help create unified safety guidelines for all Michigan schools.
“The same thing going on county to county, school to school because it’s kind of all over the place and it’s causing a lot of confusion for parents and teachers,” said Senecal.
They’re calling for things like masks to be worn inside all schools, specific social distancing guidelines, and quality air. So far, their online petition has more than eight thousand signatures.
“We need mitigation, or we are all going to be forced to virtual and we don’t want to see that. We don’t need more loss of learning,” said Lucas.
Lucas also says the fight to keep kids safe at school recently hit close to home.
“My second-grader who is seven and a half, two days was infected by her desk mate who was not wearing a mask.”
Medical experts like infectious disease specialist at Henry Ford Health, Doctor Vivek Kak says a mask mandate at his daughter’s school helped them to stay open.
“That actually has helped quite a bit because despite numerous exposures the fact that most of the kids have been masked has led to school not being interrupted once it has started,” said Dr. Kak.
Senecal and Lucas say they hope this group serves as a place for moms and dads to come together.
“We advocate for them. We give them a voice and it’s really important right now for people to just be unified and to feel like they are not alone,” said Senecal.
“There are thousands of us just in the state of Michigan, so many of us who are feeling these feelings, and we are here to listen and to hopefully make a difference in some way,” said Lucas.
To join the group or sign the petition there is a link below.
| MDHHS- Issue a Public Health Order Requiring Universal Masking in SchoolsMichigan Parents Alliance for Safe Schools (MiPASS) is calling on the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to issue a universal mask mandate in K-12 schools so that all Michigan kids have an opportunity to be safe in school regardless of where they live.actionnetwork.org |