In divisive board vote, Harnett County schools switch from optional to mandatory masks

Harnett County schools changed course Thursday and will now require masks for students, after a 3-2 vote cast with bitter disagreement.

The move makes Harnett the last school district in the area to mandate face coverings for students and staff. North Carolina’s school districts are split 78-37 in favor of mask mandate versus making them optional. But that total could shift further with last-minute decisions to switch from optional to mandatory.

“We should err on the side of safety,” said Harnett board member Vivian Bennett. “I don’t want any child to wear a mask. ... It’s just what the times have brought into our lives.”

Members who approved the mask requirement emphasized that they did so only because the state’s COVID-19 protocols would threaten large quarantines.

With masks optional, they said, a positive test result could send a whole classroom home or take out a custodial staff member. With masks, only the affected student or staff member would need to quarantine.

“I feel like our hand’s being forced,” said board member Joey Powell.

School officials told the board 103 people are already in quarantine, 18 of them staff members and the rest students.

The two members against mandatory masks stated adamantly that masks do not effectively curb COVID-19 and that they resented being bullied.

“Masks are not Superman’s cape,” said board member Jason Lemons. “Masks don’t protect the way they are being run up the flagpole to do so.”

This story was originally published August 19, 2021 at 10:26 AM.