No masks during recess. But Wake schools may require COVID testing, vaccinations
The Wake County school system shot down a proposal Tuesday to require face masks be worn during recess.
But new stricter COVID measures such as requiring COVID-19 vaccinations and testing are under consideration.
The Wake County school board voted 8-1 on Tuesday to continue its universal masking requirement to comply with a new state law requiring monthly votes on mask policies.
But school administrators said that they’re not, for now, going to require masking during recess, something they raised as a possibility last month.
Stricter measures around COVID testing and vaccination remain on the table because of a surge of new COVID cases across the district. Dr. Danny Benjamin, co-director of the ABC Science Collaborative, said requiring vaccinations will save lives and reduce COVID’s health risk to somewhere between the common cold and the flu.
“One of the advantages to having a vaccinate to participate or vaccinate all staff is that it essentially takes COVID back to much, much less dangerous than influenza,” Benjamin told the school board on Tuesday.
The ABC Science Collaborative was formed by Duke University to help advise schools on COVID issues.
Board members said Tuesday they need more time and information before they can agree to require either COVID testing or vaccinations.
While some parents and school employees support the potential changes, others complain it’s too invasive a step for Wake to take. Jasmine Raeford, a kindergarten teacher, told the school board that she was not going to get the COVID vaccine because “my body is my choice.”
“I am much more than a vaccination card,” Raeford said during public comments at the board meeting.
COVID surge in schools
Wake has seen a surge in new COVID cases from the delta variant since traditional-calendar schools reopened two weeks ago.
Wake reported more than 140 COVID cases in the first two days of traditional-calendar schools, compared to 148 cases in all of July when only year-round schools were in session.
Wake’s COVID-19 dashboard has 1,134 cases listed for August and 281 so far for September. Cases are growing rapidly due to the delta variant, which is three times more transmissible than the original strain.
The dashboard also lists 1,273 of Wake’s 160,000 students and 66 staff members under quarantine.
Benjamin said Wake could reduce the number of quarantines to 1% of the current total if they took steps such as requiring vaccination, continuing to require masks indoors and providing distancing when people are eating unmasked.
Masking outdoors
The school board had voted Aug. 3 to continue requiring face masks be worn indoors. But last week, administrators expanded the face mask policy to say students engaged in outdoor extracurricular activities had to mask unless they are directly participating in games, practices and performances.
This new requirement applied to all sports teams, marching bands and other student groups, including cheerleading and JROTC.
Parents were warned Aug. 25 that the district could also require masks to be worn outdoors during recess.
The reason given for mandating outdoor masking is that state health guidelines say that a student without a face covering is considered a close contact to an infected individual even if that exposure occurs outside. Wake says that a single exposure can lead to dozens of quarantined students.
Benjamin said the data isn’t strong for requiring masks during recess.
Although the board and staff agreed Tuesday to not act on the recess idea, board member Karen Carter questioned staff acting on its own to require masking by athletes.
Superintendent Cathy Moore said the decision was made last week because three clusters at athletic teams led to hundreds of students being quarantined.
In a compromise on Tuesday, the board included wording saying that staff would consult with the board if it made further changes on requiring masks. Carter voted no because she said the vote still gives staff too much authority.
“If this was just on the indoor mask I would support,” Carter said. “But I do not support the broad authority that I feel is being given.”
Require COVID vaccination?
The neighboring Orange County school system is mandating that school employees get the COVID vaccine. Wake County school administrators said it would require school board approval to require vaccinations.
According to Wake’s attorney, the district can mandate COVID testing and vaccinations of school employees and student-athletes. But Wake can’t mandate that students get the vaccine in order to attend school.
According to the staff’s presentation, requiring vaccinations is a recommended practice by public health officials. School officials said requiring the COVID vaccine would protect individuals from severe COVID symptoms and hospitalizations.
Benjamin said Wake will have deaths if it allows unvaccinated athletes to participate in sports
“What I’m trying to do is put you all in a position where you can keep the extracurricular activities with highest probability of success and the least mortality,” Benjamin said.
Currently, only people as young as 12 can get a COVID vaccination. The Food and Drug Administration has authorized the COVID vaccine for regular use by people ages 16 and up. It’s only approved under emergency use for people ages 12 to 15.
COVID testing for employees and some students
The school board will discuss at a future meeting whether school employees and student-athletes should be regularly tested for COVID-19 unless they can show proof they’ve been vaccinated is a contentious topic.
Wake is citing how the delta variant is more likely to be spread by unvaccinated adults and how it spreads more effectively during athletic activities.
Several North Carolina school districts are currently requiring unvaccinated employees and student-athletes to get COVID tests.
Wake hasn’t been participating in a state program using federal funds to provide free COVID testing to public and private schools. Moore said that she’ll check to see if there is a deadline next week for Wake to opt into the program.
Parents argue over masking, vaccines
Several speakers at Tuesday’s school board meeting argued against requiring masking and vaccines.
“It’s not your job to protect my child,” Amanda Horlebein told the board. “That’s my job. You don’t get to do that.”
Horlebein argued it’s unsanitary to require children to wear masks all day, which she demonstrated by pouring water over a face mask and rubbing it all over the podium. School board chairman Keith Sutton later walked over to the podium to disinfect it.
Chad Slotta, a parent of three students, objected Tuesday to one of his children’s schools advocating during morning announcements that students get vaccinated. He also complained that two of his children’s teachers had asked their students to raise their hands to show if they were vaccinated.
“We must not pit them against one another based on their vaccine status or any other group status,” Slotta said. “We must not allow medical tribalism, or any other form of tribalism, to be taught or to take hold in our schools.”
This story was originally published September 7, 2021 at 3:34 PM.
