Contention rises over mask-wearing in schools

The 2021-22 school year has started for some students around the country, even as coronavirus cases are rising sharply in places with low vaccination rates and contentious debates about mask mandates are escalating.

Despite strong hopes that the new school year would mark a return to full-time, in-school learning normalcy after more than a year of unprecedented pandemic disruptions, school district leaders are facing new challenges to achieving that goal.

With the now-dominant delta variant of the virus far more contagious than earlier ones, coronavirus cases are sharply rising among Americans who have not been vaccinated. Nearly half of the country has been fully vaccinated, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health officials say there is no evidence that the delta variant affects children and adolescents differently than earlier ones — and the vast majority of the 4 million young people who were infected since the pandemic began did not become severely ill, with many showing no symptoms. They health officials say, though, that because the delta variant is more contagious, more children could get it and carry it home to people who aren’t vaccinated. Vaccinated people can also get what is known as “breakthrough” infections, though hospitalizations and deaths are nearly all among the unvaccinated.

As complications with the delta variant continue to emerge, school district officials looking for masking guidance from expert sources are finding differing information.

The CDC has said that vaccinated students and adults do not have to mask in schools but all unvaccinated people should. But President Joe Biden said July 21 that the CDC would “probably” recommend that all children under 12 — who are not yet eligible for vaccination — wear masks in school.

But the American Academy of Pediatrics, the nation’s leading association of pediatricians, as well as some other health experts, have recommended that everyone over age 2 wear masks indoors, including those who have been vaccinated.

Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said he trusts the American Academy of Pediatrics. “They will not be popular amongst parents and kids who are sick of masks, but you know what? The virus doesn’t care that we’re sick of masks,” Collins said in an interview with MSNBC.

But those opposed to mask mandates say that local areas should have the choice about what to do in schools depending on local conditions. Many states are not requiring masks be worn in schools — even in the unvaccinated, leaving it to districts to decide.

But some Republican-led states, including Arkansas, which has one of the highest infection rates, has barred schools and government agencies from issuing mask mandates. A group of Democratic legislators in Arkansas has urged the ban to be lifted.

In Democratic-led California, the Department of Public Health on July 12 ordered that all students and staff inside K-12 schools should wear masks — regardless of vaccination status — but announced hours later that it would maintain its masking order but let districts decide how to carry it out and enforce it. Two advocacy groups just sued state officials over the mandate.

While some districts, such as the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest in the country, said it would enforce the mandate, others have said they would not.

In Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has made clear strong opposition to mask mandates in schools — despite a rising number of coronavirus cases in the state and demands by some parents that masks be worn.

“There’s been talk about potentially people advocating at the federal level, imposing compulsory masks on kids,” DeSantis said. “We’re not doing that in Florida, OK? We need our kids to breathe.”