Resistance works! The canton of St. Gallen shows how it can be done!

The canton of St. Gallen leads the way. Here, too, the youngest children in primary school should wear a mask from the 4th grade onwards. But now the canton is backtracking. Parents take responsibility for their children again. They are "strongly advised" to make the children wear masks, but they do not face any punishment if they do not do so.

Compulsory masks down to the 4th primary school. Some concerned parents in the canton of St. Gallen ran up a storm against this. Resistance arose which the authorities could not get past. The Department of Education had to give in. 

Many like-minded people helped and resisted! They put the welfare of the child above everything else. 

What did they do?

• Vigils were held. 
• Several hundred personal letters and emails kept the members of the authorities in suspense. They could no longer keep up with their replies. 
• Petitions were launched in various municipalities, showing the authorities that resistance is unbroken and growing. In the Sarganserland and Seegaster regions alone, 1300 signatures were collected within three days. 
• There was also support from the teachers. 
• Parents accompanied their children to the school and stayed on site. They insisted that their charges should be able to attend classes unmasked.
• Pressure also came from politics: the SVP parliamentary group questioned the proportionality of the mask requirement at primary level with a simple question in the Cantonal Council. 
• And by the way: Many vaccinated people also joined the resistance. For them, the compulsory masking at primary schools went too far, although they otherwise willingly supported the measures. 

Yesterday, the authorities accommodated the parents. The rigorous and completely disproportionate compulsory masking is off the table, not only for 4th-6th graders, but also for lower secondary school students. The compulsory masking requirement will be changed to an urgent recommendation for parents at the end of the month. The parents take responsibility for their children again. 

What do we learn from this? Resistance is worthwhile. It must be non-violent, unyielding in its cause and deeply human in its motivation. 

We stay tuned!