We urge Michigan educators, parents, students and workers to attend the Michigan Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee meeting tonight, Wednesday, March 2 at 7 PM. Register here.

Across the state of Michigan, school mask mandates are being lifted. On February 16, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services signed onto the unscientific policy, advising that it was no longer recommending face masks indoors, including at schools. Many districts abruptly rescinded the requirement.

The state’s largest school system, Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD), along with Lansing, Ypsilanti and Flint, will retain the mitigation requirement, at least temporarily. However, DPSCD Superintendent Nicholai Vitti has indicated that masks may become optional by “early to mid-March.” Other districts, including Grand Blanc, Kearsley Community Schools and Dearborn Public Schools have summarily ended the mandate.

The state is marching in lockstep with the CDC’s capitulation to the Biden administration’s edicts to “live with the virus” and normalize unending mass infections and deaths.

Children walked back into schools mask-less on Monday as news broke that a preprint study found that the highly-touted Pfizer vaccine showed a major drop in efficacy among 5-11 year olds. Even more devastatingly, the CDC Data Tracker Demographics section has added 212 pediatric deaths in recent weeks, an increase of 10 deaths per day, bringing national childhood deaths to 1,430.

Dearborn Public Schools, southeast of Detroit in Wayne County, Michigan, lifted its mask mandate on Wednesday, February 23, after the school district’s midwinter break. The city, Michigan’s seventh-largest, has been one of the hardest hit by the pandemic, with 30,000 of its 110,000 people officially infected and 343 killed by COVID-19 since 2020.

Casey, a parent of two and an educator, spoke to the World Socialist Web Site, explaining her outrage at sending unprotected children into schools. Aiming to alert other families to the dangers involved, she created placards describing the city’s low vaccination rates and plastered them on her car, which she left in the parking area by the school. This act of protest prompted the school principal to call the police on her, not once but twice.

Casey explained, “The first instance [of police harassment] was in Spring 2021. This was when face-to-face instruction started back up at Dearborn Public Schools. I parked in front of my child’s school with signs on the car. I expressed my disagreement with reopening schools in-person.

“I returned a second day with signs on my truck. I had the vaccination rates listed, showing that they were very low. That evening, the police came to my house. He said he wanted to see what I was up to and to make sure it wasn’t going to escalate. That was his word, ‘escalate.’

“I had a friend who taught there. Many were scared and didn’t want to go back under those conditions. The Dearborn Federation of Teachers didn’t do anything, they are very weak, but union members were supportive of me. The vaccination rates were low and it wasn’t safe.

“I’ve never heard of police going to someone’s home before for something like this.”

Then, last Wednesday, as children were returning from break, Dearborn Public Schools suddenly lifted its mask mandate, just weeks after the district reported some of its highest numbers of cases.

Casey decided to protest again. She said, “I have a right to say my piece. I parked and left and walked home. I wasn’t doing anything, just leaving a truck with signs on it. The principal called the police because she wanted to know what I was up to and if I was going to cause a disturbance.

“I put signs on the truck the first day, Wednesday. It was trash day, so I couldn’t park on the street. So I tooted my horn and drove slowly, safely, in front of the school so that it would be seen. The principal saw me outside. When I went home, within 10 minutes, we received an email that masks were optional and not necessary. Right away, she must have gone into the building and sent that.

“They sent the police that day and I wasn’t there. The second day he came and talked to me in front of the school, standing next to the vehicle. I had parents who gave me the thumbs up, but I also saw kids without masks. There were other people pretending not to see me. I’d say it was about 55 percent no masks, 45 percent with masks.

“I believe, and I put it on my truck, that our teachers, elders and medically frail are worth the inconvenience of wearing masks. Perhaps the principal is upwardly mobile and wants to uphold the superintendent and higher-ups. So she’s trying to stamp out any waves or complaints real quick.

“But to send a policeman to my house? It is intimidating. I have a vested interest in the school, in the community and I had a right to be there. The right of free expression is at stake and the ability to do that without pressure...

“The root cause for what I did is the need to keep our children, teachers, elders and medically frail safe. They deserve to go to school and be safe. But for the ruling class the question is, ‘Will the stock market go up or go down?’ The capitalists want to keep the economy going and prevent people from being aware of the dangers. I stand for science. They just want us to warehouse the students so that we continue to make the widgets.

“I support the Michigan Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee because it is necessary for education. There has been so much misinformation. It is also important to have a support system, so that none of us are alone.”

The Michigan Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee is meeting tonight, Wednesday, March 2 at 7 PM. Register here and invite your coworkers, family and friends to attend!