State health department requires masks in schools
Gov. Tom Wolf on Tuesday said Pennsylvania Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam signed an order mandating masks for all public and private pre-K-12 schools and day cares.
Beginning Sept. 7, teachers, children, students, staff and visitors will be required to wear face coverings indoors regardless of vaccination status.
Wolf said he would reevaluate his decision during the first week of October.
The governor presented the mandate at a virtual news conference, reversing course after his request to require masks was blocked in the state House and Senate earlier this month.
The decision comes as all counties in Pennsylvania are at a substantial or high level of COVID-19 transmission, and as schools mark their first week of class across the region.In Butler County, during this past first week of school, more than 80 cases of COVID-19 were identified among students and staff across the county's nine public school districts, and more than 100 students and staff are quarantining.At Tuesday's news conference, Beam said the number of cases among Pennsylvania children under 17 rose by 277% between mid-July and Aug. 28, and that the delta variant makes up more than 98% of cases in Pennsylvania.Beam said more than 17,000 Pennsylvanians are being vaccinated every day, but that more than 5,000 Pennsylvania students have tested positive since schools began reopening, and the state needs to take extra steps to protect in-person education.
Wolf pointed to mask-wearing in schools as a “necessary” way to “keep students in the classroom and keep COVID out of the classroom.”“As everybody knows, we're not where we were two months ago. The aggressive delta variant has changed everything for us,” Wolf said. “Doing nothing right now to stop COVID-19 is not an option. It's going to mean more sick kids, more days out of school, more grief for our communities and more problems for our economy.”Masking rules have varied across districts and across counties in the state.Before the order was announced Tuesday, six of Butler County's nine public school districts had mask-optional policies, two recommended but did not require masks, and one — Seneca Valley School District — required masks.Butler County school administrators have asserted in past weeks that if a masking mandate came from a state level, they would comply with all requirements.
Wolf asked people to “put politics aside” and to focus on “what matters: keeping students safe and keeping students in the classroom.”“Learning in the classroom is vitally important for the social, emotional and physical well-being of our students,” he said. “We have the tools now to keep them as safe as possible when they get back to school.”Wolf said that his office has seen an outpouring of messages and calls from parents concerned about the lack of mask mandates.“Those parents and community members are asking for our help to keep their children safe in school,” he said. “It's crucial for students and staff to wear masks in school.”When asked why he had not mandated masks earlier, Wolf said he initially asked school districts in the state to take responsibility for mask mandates, but that less than half of all Pennsylvania districts had mandated masks.“This is something you could argue is past due, and other states have done this already,” Wolf said. “We actually tried, we sent out guidance and said we'd like to have the school districts take responsibility for this. This is where we are right now. I'm the one left holding the bag; I'm the one who has to make this decision. I think the time is now to do it, and we are.”
Allegheny-Clarion Valley School District Superintendent David McDeavitt said the district plans to “do everything we can to stay in compliance with not only this mandate, but every other mandate.”However, he said, the timing of the announcement is frustrating.“It should have been done at the beginning of school, if that's what they were going to do,” he said.Mars Area Superintendent Mark Gross wrote in a message to parents and guardians that the district would follow the mandate.“The District's compliance with the current DOH order aligns with (the) previously announced and approved plan,” he wrote.Pennsylvania State Education Association President Rich Askey said in a statement that he supports the order.“This isn't a choice between masking or not masking,” he said. “It is a choice between keeping schools open for in-person learning or forcing far too many students to learn from the other side of a screen.”
Schools are required to mandate and enforce the requirement “regardless of whether this order is reflected in a school entity's health and safety plan,” according to the order.They must post signage detailing the requirement inside of school buildings, as well as provide accommodations for anyone who has medical, mental health or disability reasons for which wearing a mask would be unreasonable.Exceptions to the rule include if wearing a face covering while working would exacerbate an unsafe environment or medical condition, if necessary to confirm a person's identity, if working alone and isolated from other people, if speaking with someone with a hearing disability or for whom seeing the mouth is essential for communication, if an person is under 2 years old, or if someone is engaged in sports or an activity that cannot be performed while wearing a mask, such as eating, drinking or playing an instrument.The order states that schools should not “restrain, use force, or physically remove, teachers, children/students, staff, or visitors who refuse to comply with this order when it would not otherwise be legal to do so.”
Allegheny-Clarion Valley School District: Cases: 4, not identified whether student or staffButler Area School District: Cases: 7, not identified whether student or staffFreeport Area School District: Cases: 8 students, 0 staffKarns City Area School District: Cases: 1, not identified whether student or staffMars Area School District: Cases: 5 students, 0 staffMoniteau School District: Cases: 7 students, 4 staffSeneca Valley School District: Cases: 31 students, 4 staffSlippery Rock Area School District: Cases: 1 student, 1 staffSouth Butler County School District: Cases: 11 students, 2 staff
