Governor Wolf announcing earlier today the statewide mask mandate in schools will be lifted in January. Dylan Huberman spoke with local school officials and parents to hear how they feel about this.
The mask mandate will soon be gone, but for many questions still remain.
“Well, it made me think about do I trust the members of the school board to make good and safe decisions for the kids in our school district?”
The removal of the mandate is a step forward in the war on COVID, but not every school district knows what’s next.
It’s too soon to say which direction the district will take, but we will consult with our health and safety team over the next few weeks and we’ll evaluate the local conditions. Some other districts think they have a plan.
So what we have to do is we have to assess our case counts at this point, but more than likely will refer to the board, will present the information to the board and will probably go back to where we were before the mask mandate came,which was parent choice.
However, the debate on masking is far from over. Everybody feels strongly on both sides there.
“I’ve received emails and telephone calls from parents who believe that everyone should be nurse from day one, and I have received many phone calls and people board meetings saying that we’re infringing on their rights as American citizens to have their kids masked”
And it’s important to remember that the school district didn’t make this decision. It was made by the governor and school boards can’t pick and choose what laws they’re going to adhere to in state college, including the parents, is likely part of the plan.
“We may have a forum. We’ve done that in the past with other issues and other initiatives where we get some parent feedback.”
And Christina Whittaker, who has two kids at State College Area schools, looks forward to that opportunity.
“What other parents do is their decision. Just like what I do as a parent is my decision. I would once again just hope that everyone loves their neighbor and really kind of makes decisions for the good of the community.”
The mandate will be lifted on January 17th
