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CONCORD, New Hampshire (LifeSiteNews) — Days after the Concord, New Hampshire school board voted to require masks for all children and school employees as the 2021-2022 school year begins, more than 2,400 people have signed a petition for a statewide legislative ban on mask mandates in New Hampshire schools.

At an August 2 meeting, the Concord NH school board voted 7-1 to mandate masks be worn by students, staff, and faculty in all indoor spaces in Concord public schools. Masks will not be required outdoors, but children will be required to mask up on school buses. Those over the age of 12 who are “fully vaccinated” will be subject to the same rules.

According to the Concord Monitor, seven community members argued against the measure at the meeting, saying the mandates infringe upon personal liberty and that masking poses a threat to children’s emotional, psychological, and physical health.

Despite their protestations, however, only one school board member voted against the mandate.

In opposing the new mask mandate for Concord public schools, an organization known as ReopenNH started up a petition to override the school board’s authority by making mask mandates illegal at the state level.

The petition asks that Speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives Sherman Packard and New Hampshire Senate President Chuck Morse “call for a special joint session of the legislature as provided for in NH RSA 16 to pass legislation to ban facial covering mandates for students in all public schools in New Hampshire.”

Signers of the petition state that they “support the idea of individual liberty, which aligns with our state and federal constitutions, which protect the idea that all people are created equal and are afforded equal rights, which government is instituted to protect.”

The move to mandate masks for children in schools comes amid a lack of data suggesting the masks are useful in stopping the spread of COVID-19, and neglects to address the potential harm caused by continuous mask-wearing.

“Authorities in many places took the cue to impose mandates in schools and elsewhere, on the theory that masks can’t do any harm,” the Wall Street Journal reported in an article Monday. “That isn’t true.”

“Do masks reduce Covid transmission in children? Believe it or not, we could find only a single retrospective study on the question, and its results were inconclusive,” the Journal reported.

The article noted that despite inconclusive studies as to the efficacy of masks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) nonetheless “sternly decreed that 56 million U.S. children and adolescents, vaccinated or not, should cover their faces regardless of the prevalence of infection in their community.”

“Some children are fine wearing a mask, but others struggle,” the Journal observed. “Those who have myopia can have difficulty seeing because the mask fogs their glasses. (This has long been a problem for medical students in the operating room.) Masks can cause severe acne and other skin problems. The discomfort of a mask distracts some children from learning. By increasing airway resistance during exhalation, masks can lead to increased levels of carbon dioxide in the blood. And masks can be vectors for pathogens if they become moist or are used for too long.”

But physical health isn’t the only worry. Like the concerned community members who voiced their opinions at the school board meeting, the Journal noted that widespread masking can be emotionally damaging for children as well.

“Facial expressions are integral to human connection, particularly for young children, who are only learning how to signal fear, confusion and happiness,” the article noted. “Covering a child’s face mutes these nonverbal forms of communication and can result in robotic and emotionless interactions, anxiety and depression. Seeing people speak is a building block of phonetic development. It is especially important for children with disabilities such as hearing impairment.”

Signers of ReopenNH’s petition state that they “do not believe that the government of the State of New Hampshire or any of its political subdivisions have shown sufficient evidence to support facial covering mandates as an effective viral mitigation effort.”

The petition goes on to note that no child under the age of 19 has died from COVID-19 in the state of New Hampshire, and that children in general are at “no statistical risk” from the virus. Furthermore, signatories of the petition declare that available data does not show children to be “significant vectors of transmission” of the coronavirus, and that given the considerably low risk posed by COVID-19 to children, “any risk from facial covering wearing is therefore more significant than COVID-19.”

To date, the petition has gained over 2,450 signatures. Only residents of New Hampshire are being asked to sign the petition, which its creators hope will initiate a special joint legislative session to hand down a ban on mask mandates for public schools in the state.

A ban on mask mandates from the government level would go against CDC guidance and the recent actions of many governors and legislatures. However it would not be unprecedented. The effort by ReopenNH comes on the heels of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ executive order banning mask mandates in Florida schools, giving parents the full right to decide whether or not to send their children to school wearing a facial covering.

In May Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed an executive order forbidding schools from mandating masks in the Lone Star state.

Despite the governors’ orders, however, some school districts have defied the bans, with Broward County Public Schools in Florida and Dallas Independent School District in Texas going against their governors’ orders and forcing students and school employees to wear masks.

Meanwhile, many other governors and local officials have mandated masking from the government level.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced that everyone on-site at NJ schools must wear a mask, regardless of vaccination status.

California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom, who faces a recall election in the fall, has not committed himself to a sweeping mandate thus far, but has granted broad authority to public schools to mandate facial coverings.

Illinois has taken an even tougher approach than California and New Jersey, with even private schools required to mandate masks. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker originally left the decision up to individual schools, then reversed himself after schools largely moved to ignore the newest CDC guidance.

“Gov. J.B. Pritzker promised to respect local school boards and private school autonomy, until too few were doing what he wanted,” wrote Patrick Andriesen for Illinois Policy. “So he reversed himself, mandating masks for both private and public Illinois schools.”

In response Bart Rinkenberger, a member of the Morton School Board in Illinois, took to social media to oppose the governor’s “tyrannical” reversal, saying, “[i]f you are from a surrounding school district, I want you to courageously go to your school board and tell them you will not tolerate the governor’s tyrannical mandates.”

“If you will stand up for your children’s individual rights, we can win this battle for freedom and choice,” Rinkenberger said. “But we must all courageously stand together.”

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