Unmask MNPS

The School Board and Dr. Battle have consistently ignored the dangers of masking children. Social distancing measures including face masks are suspected of causing young children's development to drop by up to 23% during the COVID pandemic according to a new study from Brown University. 'In addition,' the report adds, 'masks worn in public settings and in school or daycare settings may impact a range of early developing skills, such as attachment, facial processing, and socioemotional processing.' The authors said that boys from poor backgrounds were most at risk of a drop in cognitive testing scores, with richer parents better able to mitigate the effects of the pandemic.
This new study corresponds with the 2021 TNReady Test results which revealed the percentage of Nashville Metro Schools students in grades 3-8 testing on track in math dropped from 25.8% in 2019 to 11.7% in 2021. Metro Schools saw a similar 6.3 percentage point drop from 25.9% in 2019 to 19.6% of students testing on track in reading this school year according to TNReady test results.

Even with this knowledge, Dr. Battle and the MNPS School Board have ignored Executive Orders allowing parents the option to Opt Out of the MNPS Mask Mandate. They overturned the MNPS Religious Mask Exemption Policy, ridiculing parents for "fake" religious beliefs. And finally they are ignoring Tennessee State Law Public Chapter 9006, 14-2-104 that prohibits them from having a mask mandate unless severe conditions are met, and also mandates that they honor religious mask exemptions.
Dr. Battle tries to state that the Williamson County Federal Court case requires her to maintain the Status Quo, but this is a blatant LIE to the parents of MNPS. MNPS is not a party to the lawsuit and not under court order. Indeed Williamson County Schools, FSSD schools, and the University of Tennessee all dropped their mask mandates in-spite of the court order and in compliance with STATE LAW.
Children who have tried to attend school without a mask are thrown in ISS or blocked from attending school. Children who have a hard time masking are disciplined, intimidated, and ridiculed forcing thousands of parents to remove their children from the school system.
To add insult to injury, Dr. Battle recently hosted Keith Urban inside an MNPS high school where they both ignored her own mask policy while the students were forced to remain masked in violation of state law.