Candidate Promotes Student Safety and Parental Choice: A Wichita Eagle Misinformation, Misrepresentation Response

In an article published in 2021, the Wichita Eagle falsely claimed that I advocated for an “experiment” on separating students based on parental views on masks during the Covid-19 pandemic. This was repeated in an article released regarding the 2023 School Board Candidates. I wanted to clear the air regarding my earlier comments. 

According to the New England Journal of Medicine, Sweden had sent their 1.8 million school children to school with no masks or social distancing for a year and a half with no deaths and fewer than 20 hospitalizations. Swedish teacher morbidity was also less than that of the regular population, although overall covid morbidity was similar to other countries, clear evidence that masking children and school closures were not only not necessary but harmful. Swedish children suffered none of the loss of learning and social stunting that Wichita children suffered because of masking and school closures..

I simply recommended that parents who were convinced that their children “should not be masked” be allowed to send their children to school with teachers with similar convictions, and parents who believed their children “should be masked” be allowed to send their children to school masked with teachers of that same view and that we should keep records of outcomes, not as an “experiment,” as stated by the Wichita Eagle, but simply as a way to reassure parents that we would respect their wishes and use evidence-based policies to advocate on behalf of their students. We could have avoided a great deal of suffering from learning loss, depression, and other social and economic losses.

I also recommended asking parents to consult their physicians regarding vitamin D supplementation and voluntarily collecting data on the incidence of school absenteeism as related to voluntary supplementation.

I advocate taking care of children according to evidence-based science and the best evidence available to the student and their medical provider.