Durham Public Schools vote to keep mask mandate for students, teachers

Durham Public School students and teachers must continue to wear masks in schools, the school board voted unanimously Thursday.

The move comes after North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper encouraged school boards and municipalities across the state to lift mask mandates and make them optional in schools. Earlier Thursday, Cooper vetoed a bill, which some have referred to as the “Free the Smiles” bill, that would have let parents decide whether their children wear face coverings in school.

DPS Chief Communications Officer Chip Sudderth said the district received 191 submitted public comments from the Durham community.

“The vast majority of those public comments were about the question of mask mandates, and a significant majority of those comments were that mask mandates be continued,” Sudderth said.

Despite Cooper’s new recommendation, Durham city and county officials also said they would keep the mask mandates that have been in place since last summer, when the delta variant of COVID-19 caused a surge in cases and sent large numbers of people to the hospital.

The highly contagious omicron variant created an even greater spike after the holidays. While the post-holiday surge is on the decline, Durham city and county officials said they would continue to monitor case data in the coming weeks while they await new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Monthly votes on masks

School boards across North Carolina must vote every month on whether they will require masks or make them optional.

Although many parents have supported keeping the mask mandate, some said masking should not be required and has “outlived” its usefulness.

“I ask with a concerned heart that you would remove the mask mandate from our children,” DPS parent Connie Harvey wrote. “The decision that you all are making to keep mask on our kids is not based on science and is absolutely cruel.”

For most of the pandemic, health officials said research shows masks are a key tool in preventing the spread of COVID-19. With a free vaccine widely available, health officials have focused on encouraging people to get a shot and a booster. Vaccines were not available for children under 12 until October. They are still not available for children under 5.

Other parents said they simply want the option to decide whether they and their children wear them.

“If some people still want them, great, but those of us who want our kids to be mask-free, please let that be up to us,” Jessica McClellan wrote.

“No more mask mandate,” she added. “Those who want to be vaccinated have been, and now it’s time to move forward and let us get our kids back to a normal routine [and] they need to be able to see their peers and teachers faces again.”

Other districts lifting mask mandates

More school districts are dropping mask mandates across the state. Currently, at least 95 of the state’s 115 school districts are mask optional. The News & Observer previously reported that 89 districts were requiring masks amid the height of the omicron variant in late January.

This week, Wake County schools, the state’s largest school district, voted to make masks optional beginning March 7.

Johnston County Schools voted last week to make masks optional, which went into effect Monday.

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro school district is expected to discuss masks March 3, but Andy Jenks, a district spokesman, told The News & Observer that “we have a ways to go” before lifting the mandate.

This story was originally published February 24, 2022 at 8:29 PM.