Editor, Gazette-Journal:

The Gloucester County School Board voted to make masks optional. This move poses a danger to children, teachers and school staff. The masks are a mitigation tool recommended by the WHO as well as the CDC and the VDH, to keep children and teachers safe from COVID and to keep the schools open.

For those who are particularly vulnerable to the effects of COVID, an infection could lead to serious illness, long-term effects or death.

Numerous school districts such as Williamsburg, James City, York, Middlesex and others are keeping the mask mandates in place at least until the virus peaks and the number of infections declines. Other school districts, such as Hampton, Richmond, Fairfax, Prince William, Alexandria, Arlington, and Falls Church, are challenging Governor Youngkin in a lawsuit over whether an executive order can override the State Constitution. Also a group of parents from Chesapeake, where six schools have returned to virtual learning, have filed...