{"id":249554,"date":"2021-05-13T23:10:13","date_gmt":"2021-05-13T20:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/schools-ditch-student-mask-requirements-in-growing-numbers\/"},"modified":"2021-05-13T23:10:13","modified_gmt":"2021-05-13T20:10:13","slug":"schools-ditch-student-mask-requirements-in-growing-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/schools-ditch-student-mask-requirements-in-growing-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"#Schools ditch student mask requirements in growing numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Schools ditch student mask requirements in growing numbers<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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As a lengthy, bitter fight over mask requirements for students neared its conclusion, the chairperson of a Florida school board announced that she would agree to lift a mandate that had been in place since September even though she preferred leaving it in place until the end of the academic year. Parents hurled insults in response.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommunist! Democrat!,\u201d opponents of making children wear masks in school shouted as board chair Wei Ueberschaer and the district superintendent explained at a May 3 meeting that they still considered masks advisable. \u201cThis is Santa Rosa County, America, not China!\u201d<\/p>\n

Moments later, the Santa Rosa school board voted unanimously to make masks optional for all grades effective immedia<\/a>tely, joining dozens of other U.S, communities in declaring that masks were or would soon no longer be mandatory for students.<\/p>\n

The debates have been emotional and highly divisive around the country, in some cases leading to the involvement of police. A few beleaguered school boards, caught between the demands of anti-mask parents and the app<\/a>eals of employee unions, eliminated student mask rules only to reverse or revise the decisions. Where many see a continued need to protect children who aren\u2019t vaccinated against COVID-19, opponents argue that masks make students uncomfortable and mandates impinge on freedom.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mask is a personal choice, and I wore it at the beginning, but I just decided that it wasn\u2019t about the mask anymore,\u201d said Cynthia Licharowicz, a Milton, Florida, parent who opposed Santa Rosa County\u2019s rule. \u201cSo I decided to take it off, and I wanted my child to have the same choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Parents
Parents and students protest students wearing masks to school during a rally in Farmington, Utah. Dozens of school districts around the country have eliminated requirements for students to wear masks, and many more are likely to ditch mask requirements before the next academic year.<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The dustups highlight competing risk narratives 14 months into the pandemic: Even as a number of U.S. schools remain closed to minimize infections, districts in states from Alabama to Wyoming decided to ditch student mask mandates. Many more are likely to do the same before the next school year starts, despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s\u00a0guidance\u00a0<\/a>that schools \u201cshould prioritize universal and correct use of masks and physical distancing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some public health experts are alarmed. While the Food and Drug Administration this week approved Pfizer\u2019s COVID-19\u00a0vaccine\u00a0for children as young as 12, it\u2019s unlikely that many young adolescents will be vaccinated before the end of the academic year.\u00a0Data from the CDC shows<\/a>\u00a0infection rates among U.S. residents ages 14-17 are now higher than for all Americans, while the rates among children 6-13 are getting closer to the national average.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that masks work to reduce transmission,\u201d Gigi Gronvall, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said. \u201cThis is really not the time to remove one of the best tools we have to reduce transmission.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Arkansas, a law will make it illegal by the end of the summer for schools or any government entity to require masks. On Wednesday in South Carolina, schools Superintendent Molly Spearman dropped a statewide student mask mandate but said Gov. Henry McMaster had no legal basis for an order letting parents choose for their children whether or not to wear masks. Spearman said districts could continue to apply their own mask rules.<\/p>\n

Many parents in school districts where masks have become voluntary are concerned.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so frustrated\u2026.I don\u2019t see any harm in wearing masks, and there is potential harm in not wearing a mask,\u201d said Christie Black, the mother of a kindergartner and a third grader in Mesa, Arizona, who was puzzled by the decision of the state\u2019s largest school district to make masks optional indoors starting earlier this month.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s little U.S. data about the spread of the coronavirus in schools where students didn\u2019t wears masks since most reopened schools required them, said Adam Hersh, a professor of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Utah. Mask supporters point to worrying examples, including high transmission at a maskless summer camp in\u00a0Georgia.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Christie
Christie Black, middle, with her two children, Angela and Luke, pose for a photo at their home Tuesday, May 11, 2021, in Mesa, Ariz. <\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Evidence from earlier in the pandemic found children less likely than adults to be infected with the coronavirus and less likely to become seriously ill from COVID-19. The CDC has said that while schools haven\u2019t been associated with substantial spread, outbreaks in schools not following infection-prevention measures \u201ctend to result in increased transmission among teachers and school staff rather than among students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Black continues to send her two children to school with masks but says \u201cthey flung their masks off\u201d as soon as they saw classmates no longer covering their faces.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like because the governor and the school board caved to peer pressure, it\u2019s now up to my children not to cave to peer pressure,\u201d Black said. \u201cIt just feels like we\u2019re more concerned with our own freedom and rights than doing what\u2019s best for the most vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Santa Rosa, east of Pensacola, mask opponents dominated public debate even though surveys of parents and teachers showed divided opinions in the 28,000-student district. A small majority of teachers wanted to require masks at least through the end of the school year, while a small majority of parents wanted the requirement lifted immediately.<\/p>\n

The school board\u2019s April 20 discussion about the issue nonetheless grew so heated that sheriff\u2019s deputies escorted multiple attendees out of the meeting, including at least one who was shouting profanities at board members.<\/p>\n

Jennifer Hensley, a Santa Rosa County parent and middle school teacher, was the only member of the public at the meeting who spoke in favor of keeping the mask mandate versus the 18 who spoke against the requirement. She said she was worried about the health of her fellow teachers and of her 15-year-old daughter, who has an autoimmune disorder.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe atmosphere was so charged,\u201d Hensley recalled later. \u201cI don\u2019t think they were expecting that level of emotion to be involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Critics of the mask policy started organizing months earlier. Hailei Smead, a mother of three students, runs a Facebook group called Santa Rosa County Parents SPEAK UP that was created in September to oppose mask requirements and has nearly 900 members registered.<\/p>\n

Smead said her fifth-grade daughter was repeatedly isolated in the school office for refusing to wear a mask and eventually obtained a medical exception allowing her to forego a face covering. Smead declined to state the medical reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not society\u2019s job to protect every other individual,\u201d Smead said. \u201cIt\u2019s your own job to protect yourself and your own family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Santa Rosa County district leaders emphasized they were following public health guidance, but state officials undercut that position even as public pressure built locally. On April 29,\u00a0Florida Surgeon General Scott Rivkees rolled back a series of health advisories<\/a>\u00a0that had been cited by the Santa Rosa district. So the school board called the May 3 meeting at which its five members voted to revoke the mask mandate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still strongly recommend the use of face masks, especially for those who are not fully vaccinated,\u201d board chair Ueberschaer said before the vote, raising her voice to be heard over shouting parents. \u201cMy hope is that the families will have a conversation with their children that face masks are now a personal choice, and that students should respect the choice of their peers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the insults hurled at Ueberschaer, a longtime school volunteer who is of Asian descent, included references to China.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt truly does make me sad that face masks have morphed from a virus-prevention strategy to a political statement,\u201d she said.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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“#Schools ditch student mask requirements in growing numbers” As a lengthy, bitter fight over mask requirements for students neared its conclusion, the chairperson of a Florida school board announced that she would agree to lift a mandate that had been in place since September even though she preferred leaving it in place until the end…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":249555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/schools-4-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[105606,1545,6642,69286,47020],"class_list":["post-249554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-5-13-21","tag-coronavirus","tag-florida","tag-schools","tag-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}