SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — Schoolchildren in California, Oregon and Washington will no longer be required to wear masks as part of new indoor mask policies the Democratic governors of all three states announced jointly on Monday.
“With declining case rates and hospitalizations across the West, California, Oregon and Washington are moving together to update their masking guidance,” the governors said in a statement.
Original story before announcement:
Many parents are hoping to hear a timeline for when mask mandates will be lifted, while others would like the mask rules to remain in place for now.
“It seems like it’s gone on for so long now, I think it’s time for this to end,” said parent George Vaught.
“We have relaxed all the mask mandates for all the adults basically, and the only people that are left are our children who are powerless,” said retired schoolteacher Janet Jagoda, who taught at Lakeview Elementary for 28 years.
She thinks it is time for the school mask policy to end.
“This is not good for children,” said Jagoda. “You have to see the person’s mouth in order to teach, especially little kids.”
Many parents feel mask mandates in schools should end, but others think mask requirements are a good thing.
“For me, it’s a good thing that kids wear a mask because you don’t know who else is around and because people, they don’t know show the symptoms for the sickness, you don’t know,” said Blanca Talamantes.
Last week, Governor Kate Brown announced that Oregon will lift their statewide mask requirements for public schools on March 19.
And New York governor Kate Hochul Sunday that their statewide mask mandate in schools will be lifted March 2, but some of the higher-risk counties and cities in the state of New York will be able to keep their mandates in place if they choose to.
So, what might we expect to see here in California?
“What we think he’ll do is give indicators about under certain circumstances when it might be safe to relax the indoor mask requirement, and that those conditions would probably be different in different parts of the state,” said Richard Barrera, trustee for San Diego Unified School District.
Even if masking requirements are lifted for California schools, he hopes the state will allow local school districts to use their own discretion.
“In order to feel comfortable relaxing the mask requirement, we want to be looking at community case rates, hospitalization rates in the community, but we also want to be looking at the vaccination rates in our schools,” said Barrera.
Many parents think masks should be optional in the classroom.
“I think if children want to wear the masks for safety reasons, they have every right to do so, but I don’t think that it should be forced that people are mandated to wear it,” said Vaught.
“The families that want their children to be able to wear masks, they should be able to do that. But the families that do not want their children to do that, they should have the choice,” said Jagoda. “This is supposed to be a free country.”
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