The Little Rock School Board is calling on state lawmakers for the authority to mandate the wearing of masks at school in the coming 2021-22 school year as a precaution against the covid-19 virus.
The board voted 8-0 at a special meeting Monday in favor of a resolution calling on Gov. Asa Hutchinson and legislative leaders to immediately convene a special session of the General Assembly “to suspend, amend, or repeal Act 1002 and allow public school districts in Arkansas the flexibility to implement mask requirements as each locally elected school board deems necessary.”
The board passed the resolution after a public comment period in which about a half dozen people appeared in person to lobby both for and against a requirement for wearing of masks by school children. Additionally, more than 80 people submitted written comments on the topic, about a dozen of which — both pro and con — were read aloud to the board by Poore.
Board member Greg Adams made the motion for the resolution and said he hoped lawmakers would listen to the concerns and give districts the latitude to do what they think is best for the people they serve.
“I acknowledge … that is a very complicated situation for families and what ever we do is a compromise situation because there is no perfect way forward,” Adams said. “No one likes to wear masks. No one likes the burden of that for adults, even less for children. But when we look at the risks and benefits and we measure them out, this is a reasonable thing to ask for, which is the ability to make a decision for our own school district.”
Act 1002 that was passed by lawmakers earlier this year prohibits government agencies — including public school districts — from mandating the wearing of face masks as a condition for entry, education or services.
The law doesn’t apply to private schools, some of which are instituting mask requirements for their students for the coming school year.
The Little Rock board resolution authorizes Superintendent Mike Poore to advocate for a change in the law and it urges all staff and students in the district to be vaccinated against covid-19.
The law, which goes into effect Wednesday, was passed at a time when the covid-19 virus cases were declining. The number of new cases has since surged.
The School Board’s newly adopted resolution notes that Arkansas is experiencing a public health emergency and is the “epicenter of the highly contagious new Delta variant” of the virus that is causing illness among a growing number of children, including children under 12 who are as yet ineligible for covid vaccinations.
The resolution also notes that the Centers for Disease Control and the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommend that children return to in-person education when it is safe to do so.
The Centers for Disease Control recommends mask wearing by those 2 and over who are not vaccinated. The American Academy of Pediatrics takes it further, recommending that everyone over age 2 should wear a mask in school — regardless of vaccination status.
“The Little Rock School Board believes that local communities should be empowered to implement common-sense public-health precautions, including requiring masks, in order to keep their students and employees safe,” the resolution states.
“[B]ut for Act 1002, the Little Rock School Board would immediately institute a mask mandate for employees and students in all K-12 schools within the district,” it also states.
Poore has said he will be one of the speakers at a rally at 2 p.m. today on the steps of the state Capitol to advocate for the local flexibility to decide on face mask requirements in public schools.
Teresa Knapp Gordon, president of the Little Rock Education Association, relayed to the board the association’s support of reinstating a mask mandate in the schools to protect students and staff.
“Requiring and enforcing a mask mandate, strict sanitation and disinfection protocols being reinstated, social distancing and working to improve air quality are all proven to reduce the spread of covid-19 in our schools,” Gordon said. “We must have these structures in place again before we start school.”
Keneasha Scott, the mother of a district elementary school child and a business safety consultant, urged that the masks be mandated by local board.
“As the safety lady I ask that you do what work places have done and enforce the wearing of masks,” Scott said, adding that families who do not want their students to wear masks keep their children at home for instruction “since masks are not required in the home.”
Jacob Davis, father of four, said he doesn’t oppose masks but does oppose mandates.
“What we really need are more choices and fewer mandates,” Davis said. “If families want to have kids wear masks, then do it. If they don’t, that’s fine too. This is a very complicated issue. It involves our children’s bodies. I agree … local decisions are best but the locality most qualified for deciding whether my child wears a mask is not the school district but my family,” he said and added that state law currently gives his family that choice.
Matt Olson asked that children not be forced to wear masks, saying that masks are breeding ground for germs, and hinder student learning as well as their social and emotional skills by hiding teacher’s lips and muffling speech.
The board passed the resolution on a day in which there were 621 new covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, 23 deaths and 14,627 active cases.
Act 1002 does not apply to private organizations, including private schools, at least some of which have said face masks will be required with the start of the year in mid-August.
Pupils and staff in Arkansas’ nearly two dozen Catholic elementary schools will be required to wear masks, Theresa Hall, superintendent for the Diocese of Little Rock schools said in a statement reported in the Arkansas Catholic newspaper.
“Unfortunately, with the recent increase of positive cases in Arkansas and the confirmation that the delta variant is far more transmissible, causing more children to be hospitalized, the elementary schools will begin the year with everyone 4 years and older wearing masks while indoors,” Hall said.
Hall also asked that the schools continue practices started last year regarding regular sanitation of school spaces and separating desks by at least 3 feet.
The mask directive does not apply to students and staff at Catholic High School and Mount St. Mary Academy in Little Rock, Subiaco Academy and Ozark Catholic Academy in Tontitown because everyone on those campus are eligible to be vaccinated.
Steve Straessle, principal of Catholic High School for Boys, said Monday that 100 % of his staff voluntarily became vaccinated, and he estimates that maybe 70 % of students have so far received shots. As it stands now, those who are vaccinated won’t have to wear masks unless distancing is not possible and those who have not been vaccinated “are strongly recommended” to wear face masks.
The relatively high count of vaccinated students student count is possibly helped by the fact the school is offering no remote instruction, Straessle said, and that having to miss school because of illness or quarantine could mean a lot of missed instruction.
“One caveat that we’ve underscored per CDC guidance: if vaccinated, no need to quarantine due to a close contact with a positive case,” he said. “Those unvaccinated will indeed have to quarantine for close contact to a positive case. Of course, that includes classes, athletic participation and all other activities.
“We are offering no virtual option this year so many of our families are calculating what a quarantine away from school would mean. I believe that fact has made a world of difference,” he said.
Lauren Curtis, a spokeswoman for Episcopal Collegiate School, said Monday that the Little Rock pre-kindergarten through 12th grade school is requiring all employees to be vaccinated unless there are extenuating circumstances.
School leaders have developed different strategies for the safe opening of school to students, Curtis also said. A decision on which of the strategies to be used will be made closer to the opening of the school, she said.