As cases rise, masking battles intensify
Parents, schools struggle over policies
Whether students should wear masks as they return to school is triggering impassioned debates at school board meetings around the region, with some parents pleading for protection for children too young to be vaccinated and others saying masks take away their rights and challenging authority of boards without a mandate from the state or federal governments.
The most recent example came during a sometimes raucous sixhour meeting Wednesday when North Allegheny’s board overruled a decision by its superintendent to impose a mask mandate, deciding to make them “optional but strongly recommended.”
The board in June had authorized Superintendent Melissa Friez to change the previously approved optional plan if health officials and the district’s physician thought it should change, and Ms. Friez did so last Friday.
Seventy-five residents attended the meeting in person, and 44 spoke about the mask mandate. About half of the audience, as well as four board members, did not wear masks.
More than 400 people also watched the meeting online.
In her presentation on the health and safety plan, Ms. Friez said that masking mandates while the county was experiencing such a high transmission of COVID-19 was the best way to “maximize inperson learning while providing a safe environment.”
“Earlier this summer, we were hopeful that the upcoming school year would not be impacted by COVID-19,” Ms. Friez said.
But when numbers started to climb in Allegheny County — which is now in the highest level of community transmission — she consulted with the county Health
Department, as well as Dr. Robert Potter, district physician. Both recommended universal masking.
Another factor that went into her decision was the impact of quarantine. Last year, she said the district issued 9,300 notices to quarantine and had 421 COVID19 cases among students and 120 among staff.
But board member Libby Blackburn said that half of the parents surveyed wanted masks to be optional and moved to change the plan.
“I’m not OK with this plan,” she said. “We need to come up with solutions that allow everyone to feel safe. There are people who don’t believe that wearing a mask all day is good.”
No one was seen giving a Nazi salute, as one man did after Fox Chapel approved a mask mandate at a meeting last week. But speakers and board members on both sides were jeered and heckled as they spoke.
Several anti-mask parents said that more children die from traffic accidents, drownings and shootings than from COVID-19, and that the decision should be up to families.
“To me, one child who dies is one child too many,” said Dr. Lynne Williams, a pediatrician with other degrees in elementary education and psychology. “I am shocked at the damage it is doing to children,” she said. “I have colleagues having children put on ventilators. They are having children die. We know that masks, second to vaccines, are the best way to prevent harm to other people.”
Joe Birch argued that the district did not have the authority to mandate masks in the absence of a state or county mandate. “Maskwearing should be our choice, not yours.”
The solicitors for some districts in Butler County have advised their boards that they did not have the authority for a mask mandate. But Christina Lane, district solicitor, said North Allegheny does have the authority to mandate masks as both the state and federal government are leaving protocols to local districts.
“Everything that we know about masking is it provides the greatest protection for our kids who cannot be vaccinated,” said Mary Kirifides Hart. “All of you on the board have the option to be vaccinated. My 6-year-old kid does not have that.”
But Jaime Dean noted that the county is not in a state of emergency and hospitals are not being overrun with cases. “Children are not super-spreaders,” she said, adding that wearing a mask for eight or nine hours a day leads to headaches and dizziness. “The burden of proof is on you, which cannot be provided.”
Mark Ferrelli said he would pull his children from North Allegheny if the district required masks. “You are taking away our rights as parents to do what we think is best for our children.”
The discussion was much the same at Tuesday’s Mars Area School Board meeting.
Superintendent Mark Gross reiterated the district’s optional mask policy, saying that the district’s solicitor does not believe that they can legally require masks without a state mandate.
Mr. Gross noted that 75% of parents who participated in a district survey were against a mask mandate.
Mask proponents, including a physician and an intensive care nurse, expressed concern about the contagiousness of the delta variant. Mask opponents spoke about parental choice, the lack of mask efficacy and freedom, with one unidentified man saying “my body, my choice” after a pro-mask speaker.
“If you can prove to me that a mask works, then tell me so,” said Garry Lazar. “These kids have to grow up in this school and this is their identity, for people to see their faces, not see a mask. We’re not Muslims. We’re Americans. We’re patriots.”
His wife, Kathy, said masks are “physiologically and psychologically abusive.”
“If you watch alternative news, you’ll get the facts. I feel sorry for everybody who is so afraid that they will mask their kids out of fear,” she said.
Teresa Rose, a nurse in an intensive care unit, said her immunocompromised son may have to go to a different school if masks are not mandated in Mars Area.
Mrs. Rose also chided board members for their reactions to speakers with whom they do not agree. “This has been disgusting to me to see the eye-rolling, the looks when people are coming here asking you to make a good decision for their children.”
Jen Gianfresca said she believes that Mars will be virtual within a month if masks are not mandated.
“I’ve never seen so many people want to put the health of their kids at risk,” she said. “Politics should not be the driving force behind this decision.”
Despite several failed motions to revise Bethel Park’s health and safety plan to require masks, the board on Tuesday let stand its Aug. 2 decision to make masks optional for students and staff.
Speaking during a fourhour meeting, board member Ken Nagel made a motion to revise the health and safety plan to include universal masking for all students and staff until Allegheny County or Bethel Park achieved a minimum 80% vaccination rate among eligible individuals.
That motion failed, as did two other versions that also would have required masking.
Nearly three hours of public comment preceded the board’s discussion.
“Freedom does not equal a free-for-all,” said resident Matt Hindman. “Personal choice is fine when it just affects your person, but this choice affects everyone around you,” he said, adding that not wearing masks will “lead to increased spread. Increased spread is increased disruption to our children’s normal school life.”
But Todd Anderson said, “We know what’s best for our children. Give us an option.” He added that if masks were mandated, his children would not want to go to school.
Not all mask mandates were rejected by boards. The Peters Township School Board voted 5-4 on Monday to require masks for anyone inside district buildings.
Masks will be required of all students and staff in the North Hills School District as long as Allegheny County is in the substantial or high phases of COVID-19 transmission. The vote was 6-3.
The debate is not limited to public schools. Nearly 2,600 people have signed an online petition asking the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh to keep masks optional at its schools.
The diocese on Tuesday announced that students, faculty and staff at diocesan schools will have to wear masks indoors to start the academic year regardless of COVID-19 vaccination status.
The diocese said it was mandating masks as part of its mitigation efforts meant to keep students learning in person five days a week.
Some of the parents signing the petition wrote that they enrolled their children in Catholic schools partly because they believed there would be no mask requirement.
“While last year, the Diocesan schools set the standard and defied the norm by returning students to the classroom in-person 5 days a week, albeit masked, they have decided to surrender what is in the best interest of our children and follow the crowd this year,” reads the petition posted by “DioPitt Parents.”
Diocesan schools were able to hold classes in person, with masks, during most of the 2020-21 academic year, but occasional shutdowns occurred because of COVID-19 cases and exposures.