No mandatory masks of primary school aged children in Cayman

We are a group of parents in the Cayman Islands that are greatly concerned with the decision of the Cayman Islands Government to introduce a mask mandate in Cayman Islands Primary Schools and other institutions for all children over the age of 5 years old, in circumstances where the prevalence of Covid-19 in the community is extremely low.

We want to protect parents' freedom to choose whether their children wear masks. We recognise that some parents may prefer their children to wear a mask but under current circumstances this should be a choice.

The Cayman Islands has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. As at 30 September 2021, 78% of the total estimated population of 71,106 has had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 72% has completed the two-course dose.

We believe the mask mandate for our primary school aged children is contrary to the current advice of the WHO, UNICEF and Public Health England.

Young children struggle to use masks correctly and at such a vital stage of their educational development, the use of masks impairs concentration, learning and verbal participation in lessons.

Despite a formal request to the Government to explain the scientific and legal basis to support the mandating of masks for primary school aged children in the Cayman Islands, nothing has been forthcoming to date.

As a first step we are looking to raise USD10,000 in legal costs to investigate this issue. The preliminary steps would include instructing a Cayman Islands lawyer and London counsel to prepare an opinion on merits and potentially drafting a letter before action to Government raising our concerns.

Depending on the outcome, legal costs may be considerably greater if we have enough evidence to issue legal proceedings in Cayman to judicially review such a mandate. We will then be doing additional fund-raising at that stage.

We will of course keep you up to date of the legal process on our Facebook page "No mandatory masks of primary school aged children in Cayman".

Your support, however big or small, would be massively appreciated. If every concerned parent would give $25 to $100 (or more!), we will reach our target in no time.

To the extent there is any surplus cash at the end of the process we will be donating this to ‘Feed Our Future’, further information on which can be found here.

Thank you so much for your support.