Some San Diego County school district leaders are pleading for help as they bear the brunt of families' discontent over the state's indoor school mask mandate, which currently has no expiration date.
Scores of students in San Diego County, who are not yet teenagers, are protesting the mandate by refusing to wear masks in the classroom. The protests have garnered more attention in the past few days, ever since state officials announced in a press conference last Monday that they were not yet lifting the state's indoor school mask mandate.
State leaders say they will re-evaluate the state's COVID data on February 28, but have suggested they will not lift the school mask mandate until sometime after that date.
Families who don't agree with masks have run out of patience with the school's mandate as they watched California officials lift their mask mandates for all other areas of public life last week and as the states grew more Number has taken off the mask of his school.
Many of the student protests are taking place in North County, where the parent-led, anti-mask, let them breathe movement began and where superintendents complain about the state throwing blanket COVID mandates on schools is of.
"I'm really sick of all the masks," 12-year-old Eddie Spangler, who refused to wear a mask at his school, Aviara Oaks Middle School in Carlsbad Unified, said Sunday. "If (Gov. Gavin) Newsom isn't supposed to wear a mask, I don't know why we have to."
To comply with the state's mask mandate, schools are excluding students who refuse to wear masks from classes and wait at an outdoor location on campus until their parents pick them up. Huh. The practice has prompted complaints from parents who say their children are being denied instruction after exercising their right to freedom of speech.
"I don't want my child to be separated," parent Wendy Griffin said on Sunday. His 9-year-old daughter, Emily, refused to wear a mask at Kelly Elementary at Carlsbad Unified. "I don't think that's right. It's strange to me that we're living in a country of segregation."
But according to some local school leaders, the families' anger is misplaced, as schools are required to implement the mask mandate on behalf of the state, even though many school leaders are unhappy with how the state is handling the COVID school mandate.
Superintendents of several local districts, including Poway Unified, Carlsbad Unified, San Marcos Unified and Alpine Union, said they were disappointed the state had not yet issued a timeline for easing school mask mandates. Districts in other parts of the county, particularly the San Diego Unified and South County school districts, are more likely to adopt COVID safety measures such as masking and vaccine mandates.
In a letter to state leaders on Friday, Poway Unified Superintendent Marion Kim-Phelps shared frustration that state officials have placed the burden of mask-enforcement on teachers. He said that the teachers, after two years of distance learning, keeping in mind the COVID safety measures, following the frequently changing school COVID rules of the State and providing parents with masks, school closures and other COVID measures. Tired of having to endure the anger and oppression of
“Our already taxed teachers and administrators should not and should not be masked police. Students should not and cannot be excluded from their education,” wrote Kim-Phelps. "The anger and conflict over masks has become a huge distraction in our schools."
Carlsbad Unified Superintendent Ben Churchill said in an email on Sunday that there is a misconception that school districts have the potential to disobey the state's mask mandate, and put school staff in "a very difficult situation". Because if they don't, they face significant risks. Don't apply it.
“Our teachers, principals and staff are between a rock and a hard place. They just want to teach… They don't want to fight about statewide mandates,” Churchill said. far more accessible."
In August, state public health official Tomas Aragon warned school leaders that they had a legal duty to enforce the mask mandate and that they would face "significant legal, financial and other risks" if they did not. Will have
Schools and school leaders could face "significant financial liability" if a student or staff member contracts COVID while the mask mandate was not being implemented, and if a student or staff member dies from COVID If so, the liability would be "substantial," Aragon warned. Schools could face lawsuits from families or staff, as well as fines or other actions by county health officials, for not implementing the mask mandate.
Aragon said individual staff members with education licenses, including teachers and administrators, can also be disciplined by the state's credentialing commission.
Parents against masks said they are not convinced that school districts' hands are tied, as they have seen reports of school districts in other parts of the state not excluding non-mask-wearing students from class.
And the state has refrained from saying that schools will have to take students out of the classroom in order to comply with the mask mandate – in fact, the state says nothing about how schools should enforce the mandate, allowing schools to The leaders are also disappointed.
At a Friday news conference, Newsom stressed that while parents oppose masks, there are parents who want to keep masks.
"There are parents on both sides who have strong opinions," Newsom said. "And I can assure you, as a parent, I understand it. And we have to adjust for a state that has more school and public school teachers than any other state in the country, and the nuances that And given the complications, all those challenges have to be included.
This includes parents such as Jennifer Kutler, who represents a group called Parents4PUSD with approximately 500 members. At a school board meeting last week, Kutler said parents were "outraged" by Kim-Phelps' letter and believed it could provoke more masked protests and feelings among students. Which will only bring more stress for teachers," Kutler said. ,
Kutler said he believes anti-mask sentiment is being blown out of proportion, and that relatively few students are opposing masks.
"Why aren't the superintendents representing the vast majority of parents who follow the mandate?" Kutler said in an email. "Instead she has become an ally to masked anti-groups, making them feel justified in their disruptive rule-breaking behavior at school."
In an email, Kim-Phelps said her letter was not about supporting or opposing masks. As for the superintendent, she said she listens and tries to balance multiple perspectives.
"My support and advocacy will always be about what is best for our students, staff and the school community," she said.
He said that higher vaccination rates, greater access to vaccines and lower infection rates have all improved the COVID conditions.
"When the mask mandate was lifted on February 15, with public figures seen comfortably indoors without masks at various places, except in schools, it sent a mixed message to our students, staff and families," she said. . "Enforcement of the mask mandate has become extremely difficult for school officials, and our campuses should not become a political battleground when data supports a return to normalcy."