She wanted to go back to school amid cancer fight. Mask exemptions are keeping her at home
NEWTOWN, Pa. — Carolyn Austin’s friends returned to school for in-person learning at Goodnoe Elementary in the Council Rock School District of Pennsylvania on Aug. 30.
Much to her disappointment, Carolyn did not.
“I miss being at recess with my friends,” she said.
The 9-year-old, who loves travel and cooking, was diagnosed in June 2020 with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Carolyn’s health has been put through the wringer in just over a year’s time, with her little body enduring lumbar punctures, nasogastric feeding tubes, bone marrow biopsies and chemotherapy treatments on top of taking dozens of medications.
Catching COVID-19 would be another complication, her mother Elizabeth explained.
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Prior to Gov. Tom Wolf's masking order requiring facial coverings on K-12 campuses, Elizabeth Austin was too concerned for her daughter's health to send her back to the classroom.
Carolyn is one of the dozens of children that parents at local school board meetings advocating for mandatory masking focused on in their fight for face coverings. They said illness, such as childhood cancer and other underlying health concerns, leaves some children more vulnerable to coronavirus. And while an infection for most children may not be serious, it could be devastating to those that are already sick.
Carolyn's school district began the year with a mask-optional policy — which led her mother to opt homeschool the young cancer patient.
“I think that the least that can be done is just wearing a mask during a pandemic when it's being recommended by experts, not just because my kid is sick and I want people to be careful around her, but because that's a recommendation coming from experts in the field as what we should do,” said Austin, who’s also mother to 11-year-old Jack.
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The week before school started, Carolyn was thrilled about the possibility of going back, her mom posted on Facebook.
“She insisted on going to her meet and greet (with her teacher), even though she had gotten medications, chemo and a needle stuck into her spine,” Austin wrote.
“Do you know how much you have to love your school to take a needle to the spine and then beg to go to a meet and greet with a teacher you may or may not even spend the year with?”
The message on Facebook is not the only letter Austin has written.
In the days leading up to the new school year, she reached out to the superintendent and school board members, sharing her daughter’s situation and pleading for a change from optional to required masks.
A request for comment from the USA TODAY Network to the school district went unanswered.
“I got a nice email back from one, a cold email from another, and nobody else responded to me,” said Austin.
She noted that for students with peanut allergies, other students are asked to leave nut-free products at home, and questioned why a similar mask accommodation couldn’t be made for her daughter battling cancer.
“Because the school can't make those accommodations, I'm homeschooling her and paying for it out of pocket to make sure that she gets a proper education,” she said.
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Student with cancer staying home over Pennsylvania mask exemption
