Anti-mask protests held at area schools
State mandate went into effect on Tuesday
Dozens of students and parents in Western Pennsylvania voiced their disapproval with the state’s latest school mask mandate by holding protests at their high schools on Tuesday.
Around the state, some school districts openly defied the order, and the state House announced it would return early from summer recess to fight the mandate.
The mandate took effect after midnight Tuesday and requires all students and staff in K-12 schools and child care centers to wear masks. Gov. Tom Wolf, whose administration ordered the mandate a week ago on Aug. 31, said the move was necessary because of the spread of the delta variant and to “keep our children in the classroom and COVID-19 out of that classroom.”
On Tuesday morning, about 50 students and parents gathered in front of the Hempfield Area High School in Westmoreland County to protest the mandate.
“We just want to show them that we are tired of these mandates and that we should have the right to choose,” said Lily Silvis, 15, a sophomore at the school. “We can’t breathe in the school. There’s only air conditioning in some rooms.
It’s hot outside right now; it’s hot in there.
“We are fed up with the school system, and we want our freedoms back.”
Junior Joshua May, 17, shared
his displeasure.
“I’m here protesting for not wearing masks because they are taking our rights,” he said.
Previously, Hempfield required students to wear masks on school transportation, but they were optional inside school buildings.
State Rep. Eric Nelson, R-Hempfield Township, joined protesters outside the high school to “encourage parents and students that are voicing their rights,” he said.
“To me, if a healthy student is exercising their recognized right
not to comply, they should not be denied an in-person education,” Mr. Nelson said.
He noted that he believes it was “a tough situation for both the school board and the parents.”
Also in Westmoreland County, about 50 parents and students from the Greater Latrobe School District protested the mask mandate in front of the high school.
Spencer Bowman, a senior at Greater Latrobe, said he wanted “a taste of that normal high school experience” before he goes to college.
“I started wearing the masks in 10th grade and now I’m a senior,” he said. “I just feel like kids who are vaccinated shouldn’t have to wear a mask.”
A similar protest occurred at the neighboring Derry School District, which is what inspired Spencer to help organize the protest at Greater Latrobe.
The Greater Latrobe administration told students during the protest that they could either enter with a mask, find another way for schooling or just leave the premises, Spencer said. Some of the students left that protest and joined the one outside Derry High School.
Prior to the state’s mandate, Greater Latrobe did not have a mask mandate in place for school buildings but did require mask wearing for anyone using school transportation because of federal requirements.
The protests come as the state Senate leader and three school districts have asked state Commonwealth Court to overturn the mask mandate. Sen. Jake Corman and the districts — Wyomissing Area in Berks County, and Butler Area and Slippery Rock Area, both in Butler County, went to court on Friday, joined by private schools and parents. The court is expected to take up the case this week.
Another protest took place Tuesday in the PennTrafford School District, according to WTAE-TV, where parents marched to the high school to hold a protest.
Penn-Trafford also is in Westmoreland County.
The Department of Health order applies to “everyone indoors at K- 12 public schools including brick and mortar and cyber charter schools, private and parochial schools, career and technical centers and intermediate units.” It will also apply to early learning programs and child care providers for children 2 and older.
Most Pennsylvania counties continue to report a substantial level of COVID-19 cases that could continue to have an impact on how classes are conducted in school districts.
The Highlands School District on Tuesday said its
middle school will switch to remote learning for the week “due to a high number of positive COVID cases.”
“Teachers will post schedules, assignments and Zooms in their Google classrooms, and will be available via email throughout the week,” according to the district’s website.
Several school districts reported high numbers of cases last week including Moniteau in Butler County, which was forced to close two schools because of staffing shortages.
In the Tunkhannock Area School District, in northeastern Pennsylvania, school buildings were shut down Tuesday and students had to learn remotely amid 21 confirmed infections and 27 probable infections.
Meanwhile, the Tamaqua Area School Board in Schuylkill County flouted the mask mandate by voting to keep face coverings optional.
Acknowledging a “divide in the community,” the Tamaqua district superintendent, Raymond Kinder, said in a note to parents that “students that choose to wear masks and those who choose not to wear masks should feel comfortable doing so ... I ask that students support each other in their choices and show respect to one another.”
The superintendent of Hamburg Area School District in Berks County said masks would remain optional pending the outcome of a special school board meeting scheduled for Tuesday night to discuss the statewide mandate.
Saying it wanted the mandate overturned, the Central York School Board said it would give a “grace period “for students to come into compliance, even though the statewide order that went into effect Tuesday included no such provision.
The Central York board also noted that parents could
apply for a medical exemption to the mandate, declaring, “The governor chose to impose this language and he should be held to it — and that includes the exemptions.”
York County District Attorney Dave Sunday, a Republican, instructed police that they shouldn’t issue criminal citations related to the masking order, nor would his office prosecute violations, based on his office’s legal analysis of it.
“At no point should these instructions be interpreted in any fashion as detracting from the seriousness of COVID-19” or “downplaying the personal responsibility that we share towards each other in our community,” he wrote in a memo. He added that harassment, threats or violence “will not be tolerated at any time.”
The masking order says school officials who do not enforce it could face criminal sanctions and could lose immunity from civil lawsuits. It wasn’t clear whether the Wolf administration would try to force the issue.
Mr. Wolf changed his stance on masking — that local
school officials should decide — amid a surge in coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths driven by the highly contagious delta variant. The Democratic governor said last week that a universal, statewide order was necessary after most of Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts did not impose their own mask mandates.
House Republicans, who panned the mandate, said Tuesday they would come back into session a week earlier than scheduled to take up mask legislation.
“Over the past week our members have heard from parents, families, and school administrators from across Pennsylvania who are concerned with the Wolf administration’s new statewide mask mandate. Putting forward a legislative response to that mandate is something we are planning to address with the additional session days,” said Jason Gottesman, spokesperson for the House GOP.
He said details were still being worked out.