Don’t fight over masks in school

Where would a child learn to call another child “stupid” and “a sheep” for wearing a mask (“Health risks, ‘mask shaming’ feared when Hawaii public schools drop indoor mask requirement,” Star-Advertiser, March 17)? Most likely from the adults around them. This is shameful.

It is a shame that wearing a mask has become so much more than wearing a mask. It is a shame that people in service professions are afraid to remind folks who aren’t wearing one to please wear a mask indoors, while it’s currently the rule. It’s a shame that masks catapult us into flight-or-fight responses.

Let’s take a breath and remember to be sensitive to our fellow humans. Even if you disagree with another person and feel that their actions — mask wearing, not mask wearing — are a threat to you in some way, treat the other person with kindness and respect. Teach your children to do the same.

To be aggressive toward another person over mask-wearing is truly shameful.

Brooke Jones

Mililani

Safeguard students against bullies

It appears with good reason that parents feel alarm and fear when the state mask mandate ends, as essentially the state would be failing its mandate, obligation and responsibility to protect all students within its schools and care (“Health risks, ‘mask shaming’ feared when Hawaii public schools drop indoor mask requirement,” Star-Advertiser, March 17).

School policy should not merely be “supportive” of students and staff who choose to wear a mask beyond cited requirements. It should be enforced to safeguard those with definite and not-so-evident underlying or compromised health conditions and are subject to higher-risk illnesses.

It appears that schools and the state Department of Education are giving more inferred support to those bullies and their mentalities. Definite action is warranted to specifically address any shaming behavior, especially involving others’ health and safety.

Yes, it is more than a good “idea” and, yes, schools should be “safe places for students and staff.”

Sam Hashimoto

Mililani

Don’t let bigotry stop LGBTQ education

David Shapiro’s column (“Bob McDermott knows how to get to the bottom of things,” Star-Advertiser, Volcanic Ash, March 13), was spot-on. Shapiro expressed my feelings exactly by saying, ”Crude bigotry such as McDermott traffics in is exactly why it’s necessary to teach basic human respect for marginalized people.”

As for the reverend who claimed that House Bill 1697 tramples on religious freedom because it “was described as being necessary to teach students what is and what is not sinful behavior” (“LGBTQ education bill harms religious freedom,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, March 11): The actual quote was, “training would be … (for) all teachers, so that they (students) are not dismissed as evil or unnatural or dangerous or sinful.”

Big difference, no? Or would the good reverend be fine with dismissing those students dealing with questions and issues regarding sexuality and identity as being bizarro fringe people?

And to parents like Agnes Tauyan, who said, “My keiki’s sexuality is not within the purview of state education curricula” (“Sex education belongs within family, not school,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, March 10): They already have the option of pulling their children out of sexual health instruction.

Paul Campbell

Waipio

Expand telehealth over the phone

One of the unexpected benefits of the pandemic has been the increased access to health care that telehealth has enabled. Without legislative action, telephonic telehealth, which is disproportionately used by individuals with lower incomes, racial minorities, rural residents and our kupuna, will cease to be a covered benefit under HMSA (though it will still be covered by Medicare and some insurance companies).

There are currently three bills in the Legislature that have crossed over, which would make this change permanent: Senate Bill 2073 provides insurance coverage for all telephone health sessions on par with video; SB 2645 is similar, but applies only to mental health; and House Bill 1980, which places some limits (i.e. there must have been an in-person visit within the last 12 months, video is not available and treatment must be medically necessary).

The Senate has been supportive, but the House is poised to kill the two Senate bills. Given the cost of not providing mental health care to those who need it, the House should make telephonic telehealth care easier rather than harder to access.

Jeffrey D. Stern

Waikiki

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