Back to committee: decisions on masks deferred
Shelby County Comm. delays vote on measures
Shelby County Commissioners didn’t end up recommending that the Shelby County Health Department instate a countywide mask mandate Monday night.
Instead, after questions were raised about the county’s enforcement ability and whether the state might overrule such a mandate, the resolution was sent back to committee.
Monday was an at times tense evening, with anti-maskers speaking before the commission to oppose the Shelby County Health Department’s mandate that masks be worn in schools.
A resolution to spend $2 million to purchase 500,000 face masks for Shelby County Schools (including university schools), Shelby County Charter Schools and all municipal schools located in Shelby County was also referred back to committee.
Some residents speak out |against masks
Ten people, many of whom were from Collierville, spoke out against masking in schools. The group clashed several times with Commissioner Tami Sawyer when she referred to them as “racist,” the group responding with loud outbursts and Chairman Eddie Jones Jr. threatening to have them removed from chambers.
Earlier Monday a post circulated online from the Conservative Women of Collierville about Sawyer’s resolution to purchase face masks for students saying “wonder if there is a kick-back on that one ???” Several commissioners spoke out against the post, calling it inappropriate.
Anti-mask advocates argued that wearing masks will make you sick from bacteria building up (a myth if masks are washed regularly, according to Johns Hopkins), that masks don’t decrease the spread of COVID-19 (also untrue: masks decrease respiratory droplets spread through the nose and mouth) and that children aren’t susceptible to serious illness from COVID-19.
Two children died from complications of COVID-19 just last week, according to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital.
Tracy Stohr asked where the health director’s authority comes from and where the line is drawn with that authority.
“In my opinion, masks are cruel,” she said. “We need to think about the individual kids here and do right by them. This is cruel.”
Ashley Mayfield, a Collierville resident and commission staff member, said she was disturbed to hear people advocating against the mask mandate when her child brought COVID-19 home to her.
“I felt really safe and comfortable sending my kid to school today sending my kid to school knowing she was going to be wearing a mask,” Mayfield said.
Shelby County Health Director Michelle Taylor said it would be very difficult to enforce a countywide mandate.
School districts don’t oppose mask mandate
With regard to the schools mandate, they rely heavily on their partnership with the schools to enforce, she said, just as the schools enforce other rules such as required vaccines for students.
Before instating the mask mandate for schools, the health department called an emergency session with representatives from all school districts to discuss a health directive, Taylor said. None of the districts opposed the idea of a mask mandate, she said.
Currently 16.8% of Shelby County’s population is under the age of 12 and cannot yet be vaccinated, Taylor said. If they wear masks, the chance of transmission goes down. Altogether, only 7.5% of children under the age of 18 are vaccinated, she said.
“We need to remember that we’re all in this together and that the vaccination rates right now are very low,” Taylor said. “A multilevel approach is going to be necessary for us to dig out of this hole, and that includes vaccinations and masks.”
Katherine Burgess covers county government and religion. She can be reached at katherine.burgess@commercialappeal.com, 901-529-2799 or followed on Twitter @kathsburgess.