Utah Family Shares Story About Son Who Must Wear Masks At School

HERRIMAN, Utah — The Allen family is hoping their experience with mask-wearing in schools will help others going back to the classroom this fall. Their youngest son, Evan, has a medical condition that requires him to wear a mask.

“It is a constant battle to keep him safe,” father McKay Allen said. “Evan has cystic fibrosis. There’s no cure, but they’ve made a lot of strides with the treatments.”

The disease that makes it difficult for Evan’s lungs to clear mucus. A common cold can land Evan in the hospital, which is something he experienced for 28 days during his preschool year.

“He was in the hospital a lot that year so we thought before he goes into kindergarten we are going to make some changes and figure out if we can make it safer and healthier,” Allen said.

Evan started to wipes down surfaces in the classroom and leaving on his mask during class. His parents said it took some getting used to, but in the end, his son barely noticed he was wearing a mask.

“It didn’t inhibit his learning, I don’t feel like it disrupted the class I don’t think it needs to be a huge issue,” mother Stacy Allen said.

The family said with those simple changes, along with asking parents not to send their sick children to school, Evan fell ill only twice during the year.

“He never threw a fit about putting his mask on but I think if parents say ‘this is stupid, you shouldn’t do this,’ and they are talking about it in that way in their home, it’s going to be really hard for their kids to do it at school,” McKay Allen said.

The family shared their experience on Facebook and received hundreds of shares within hours. They hope their story will encourage other parents as they prepare to send their children back to the classroom in the fall.

“We are in it together, there will be an end, we just all need to do our part to keep each other safe,” Allen said.