In an interview with “Good Morning San Diego,” San Diego Unified School District Board President Sharon Whitehurst-Payne gave an outrageous response while defending the school district’s decision to return to indoor mask mandates.

Whitehurst-Payne asserted that students who don’t want to wear a mask or are uncomfortable wearing a mask should not return to school.

“They really should wear the mask.”

She added that if students don’t feel comfortable with the mask, they should “at that point, just not return.”

Students enrolled in summer school will be required to wear masks indoors now, although there was no mandate when summer school started. In a letter written by the district and sent to parents, it said:

“If your student is participating in summer school or other summer enrichment program, please send them to school or their program with a mask … If they do not have one, masks will be provided. Students and staff will be required to wear their masks while indoors only.”

When asked about the parents concerned regarding the mask mandate, Whitehurst-Payne said:

“They can opt not to return to the regular school but to go to the school where they don’t have to go to school at all other than via Zoom.”

She added there are “some options” such as “school that’s online.”

A Harvard University study showed the impacts of in-person learning compared to online schooling. Thomas Kane, one of the authors of the study, said:

“Students in high-poverty schools that were remote for more than half of 2020-21 would be expected to see a 5% decline in average earnings over their career, given past relationships between test scores and earnings … That may not sound like much, but when calculating losses for all 50 million students in K-12 education in the U.S., it would amount to a $2 trillion decline in lifetime earnings.”

Just as people thought the mask mandates were behind us, once and for all, San Diego Unified School District and Los Angeles County are preparing to reinstate the mandate, though it is unclear if residents of Los Angeles County will follow it. It seems, though, that the children in the San Diego Unified School District will be forced to wear their masks unless parents are able to homeschool them or move them to a private school.

This is a prime example of why school choice is extremely important, and that is why the election in California for Superintendent of Public Instruction is extremely close, as Lance Christensen seems to be in a good position to oust the incumbent Tony Thurmond. Christensen supports school choice and wants to take leaps to improve public schools.

As Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said in February, the medical science didn’t change — the political science did.

The medical science on forced masking children didn’t change — the political science did. In Florida, we never imposed state mask mandates, and we liberated children and parents from the local authorities that did. We hope every jurisdiction will follow suit. pic.twitter.com/Dz4SgObVJx

— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) February 8, 2022

School choice will benefit minority families and children the most, and parents are ready to have their voices heard in November.