LA Times writer: 'Jerk' parents should 'calm down' over mask mandates because children 'are used to it'

A Los Angeles Times editorial board writer claimed parents opposed to mask mandates were acting like "jerks," and that children were OK with wearing masks at school because they're adaptable and "used to it."

In a Thursday piece, Karin Klein argued court cases against mask mandates revealed a lack of knowledge about the delta variant of the coronavirus, as well as displayed an "hysterical attitude" among parents of privilege regarding their child's capability to withstand discomfort.

"The kids are fine. It’s the parents who are acting like jerks," Klein said, before describing a scenario in which the writer took her 6-year-old granddaughter to an aquarium that required masks to be worn by everyone older than 2. 

She claimed that everyone was wearing their masks at the venue, including the children without any accompanying complaints, and added that the granddaughter even forgot to take her mask off upon her return to the car at the end of the trip.

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Klein "writes editorials about education, environment, food and science," according to the newspaper.

"I hear stories like this from parents all the time, including those whose kids have been in classrooms with their masks on all day," the editorial said. "Even when they slide into the car and their parents remind them that they can take off their masks, they often shrug and leave them on. They’re used to it." 

"Of course families choose to go to the aquarium, while school is compulsory. But kids have been going to all kinds of places where they wear masks and they’ve been managing," it added. "We give kids far too little credit. They’re generally adaptable and able to understand limitations well — at times, it would seem, far better than their parents."

Klein claimed that California Gov. Gavin Newsom's, D., order to wear masks inside schools wasn't anything children couldn't handle, but noted that it was accompanied by lawsuits.

"These court challenges reveal more than a lack of knowledge about the Delta variant of the coronavirus," Klein wrote. "They also display a somewhat hysterical attitude, growing more prevalent among parents of privilege in many arenas, that their children are incapable of suffering any discomfort."

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She slammed the Orange County Board of Education, who it noted was part of the lawsuits against Newsom's mask order. 

"Maybe it’s the lack of something constructive to do that has led it to embrace conservative causes lately," she wrote, before noting the group had recently held a forum bashing critical race theory. 

"The 5- and 6-year-olds don’t know any other reality. And they’re fine with it as long as their parents and other hyper-excited adults would calm down," she added. "If we worry about becoming an increasingly entitled society of people who think the rules were meant only for other people, we’re certainly getting a taste of it as parents complain about every rule that might slightly inconvenience their kids."

The debate over mask mandates in schools has been point of contention in recent weeks with states seemingly split on the issue. In contrast to California's mandate that children should have to wear masks in school, both Florida and Texas have put rules in place to prevent mandating all children to wear masks.

A New York Magazine piece last week questioned the calls to mask up all children in schools. Even the World Health Organization has recommended against putting masks on children under age 6.

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"A year ago, I said, ‘Masks are not the end of the world; why not just wear a mask?’" Elissa Schechter-Perkins, the director of Emergency Medicine Infectious Disease Management at Boston Medical Center, told New York Magazine. "But the world has changed, there are real downsides to masking children for this long, with no known end date, and without any clear upside." She added, "I’m not aware of any studies that show conclusively that kids wearing masks in schools has any effect on their own morbidity or mortality or on the hospitalization or death rate in the community around them."