BREAKING: 7-year old caught without mask on playground, parents reported

Our 7-year old sprinted from one end (ending one activity) of the MCS lot to the other (playground time!) and somehow had forgotten his mask. By the time my wife caught up with him (minutes) she realized this. But it was too late. Two parents in the vicinity had already noted it and separately contacted the principal who had to then reach out to us and report that Bo was playing without a mask.

Perhaps as a small community where we know almost everyone, we could have instead a) nicely reminded the child directly he needs his mask b) looked for the parent who was in the vicinity and c) not reported it to our educators who have so much else going on they don’t also need to be the default “mask enforcers”.

Covid is serious stuff… so is supporting each other and working together as neighbors and as a community as opposed to jumping so quickly to call the authorities who have their hands full already with broader responsibilities.

We can remain calm in the face of uncertainty and changing information. We can seek clarification before overreacting to rumors. We can give each other the benefit of the doubt.

If not here in the small towns of NH and VT, then where?