To mask or to not mask? Community at SLO County school district is split — again
Trustee Mark Buchman wanted to make one thing clear during the San Luis Coastal school board’s meeting on Tuesday: There are, in fact, things regarding schools and their children’s education that unite the community.
As he spoke at length about how youth suicides had increased in recent years, how California spends less money per student than other states, how some marginalized students continue to fall behind in learning and how so many students’ families in the San Luis Obispo County school district are considered to live below the poverty line — the few parents who remained at the school board meeting all nodded their heads in support of Buchman’s sentiments urging the community to work together on these issues.
It was a scene far different from the one that preceded it.
A scene where parents in the audience audibly scoffed, groaned and moaned when someone would speak up for continuing the face covering mandate for kids in classrooms. And one where parents giving their public comment via Zoom berated those on “the other side” for being “selfish” for wanting their kid to go to school without a mask on.
The debate over whether children should be required to wear masks while indoors at school rose once again at the San Luis Coastal Unified School District’s Tuesday meeting — a debate far too familiar for anyone who has attended a school board meeting over the past two years.
During the meeting, the board was faced with a resolution to determine whether it would follow the California Department of Public Health’s newly updated face covering guidance for schools — or impose a stricter requirement.
The new state guidance released on Feb. 28 allows for kids to go to school without masks after March 11. California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) released similar updated guidance for school employees on March 1.
Although the San Luis Obispo County Public Health Department has the option to enforce a mask mandate at schools — it has indicated that it will not do so. That leaves school districts to decide whether they want to enforce a mandate, which none have said they will do.
The San Luis Coastal school board unanimously decided during its Tuesday meeting to follow suit with the state’s updated guidance.
“We’ve often commented that we feel constantly that the rug has been pulled out from under us ... either by changing science, or changing circumstances or seeing different approaches to best address this horrible pandemic that we are going through — and that is continuing,” Trustee Ellen Sheffer said at Tuesday’s meeting. “We chose as a district to operate under the parameters that were set by the federal government, by the state government, by our county department of health, and to follow what they had put in place. And I don’t regret that for one second.”
Public comment divided over COVID-19 mask mandate
The community, however, was not exactly unanimous on the issue.
A fair contingency of the public commenters were fearful that dropping the mask mandate after March 11 will cause widespread infection of COVID-19 among their children and ultimately the community’s vulnerable populations.
“Protecting those in our community who are the most vulnerable is the least that we can do. We can be a community that cares,” said Carrie Langner. “And outside of school, families can make their own choices about their comfort level with risk. But schools are a collective space where my children shouldn’t have to share the risk levels chosen by other people.”
Many other public commenters during Tuesday’s meeting wanted the school board to drop the mask mandate earlier than after March 11. They said mask choice was important to allow their children to go to school without the face coverings, and they cited the low hospitalization rate of young people who get sick with COVID-19.
“It’s time for us to course correct immediately, right now, before our ship sinks — and our ship is our children,” said Kyla Grafton, a parent of two home-schooled children. “They are the ones who are suffering, and it’s time for us to take the masks off immediately.”
A prominent sentiment among many parents and community members who attended the meeting or sent in written comments was the desire for “mask choice,” or allowing students to choose whether they will attend school with a face covering on to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
That’s what the San Luis Coastal schools and other local districts will implement beginning after March 11.
San Luis Coastal Unified’s Diane Frost, assistant superintendent of educational services, noted during Tuesday’s meeting that the district will continue to keep an eye out for bullying related to whatever mask-wearing choice a student makes. They will also have N-95 masks available for staff or students who want them, and will ensure that other measures to mitigate the potential spread of COVID-19 on school campuses are in place, Frost said.
In the end, board members seemed happy by their unanimous vote to drop the school indoor mask mandate after March 11. It comes nearly two years after schools closed their doors to in-person instruction when COVID-19 was still a new virus in the world.
“I stand by the recommendations by the California Department of Public Health and the CDC and their expertise in this area,” said Trustee Kathryn Eisendrath-Rogers. “We are, as a board, making the decision that we believe is the best interest of your children and our community. And I stand by that wholeheartedly.”
This story was originally published March 2, 2022 at 12:04 PM.
