Students cannot hear me with a mask on. I’m like white noise to them. Students who are hearing impaired do not benefit from teachers wearing masks. Student who don’t speak English or are learning new words cannot process them adequately if they cannot see our mouths forming words. Students with emotional needs or any child on the autism spectrum benefit greatly from seeing our faces. Many studies have shown the trauma and detriment not seeing faces has on children. Many teachers got the vaccine against our better judgement in order to “return to normal” and we haven’t seen normal in two years. Masking teachers does more harm to students than good. It’s truly a shame that all of this has come down to poll numbers. It is evident that what is best for students has never been a priority for our government. All of the above things I listed should already be known by leaders in our state. The fact that this has to be pointed out shows how incompetent our leaders are.