Harnett County changes its mask rules again for students and teachers. What we know.
Harnett County schools is changing its mask policy again and will return to making masks optional for students and employees, the board voted Monday.
Harnett County was the first school district in North Carolina to make face masks optional, even before schools were given the option. Last month, Harnett voted to require face masks as COVID cases rose.
But Monday, the school board voted 3-2 to make face masks optional again, starting Oct. 5. The board majority said there has been a drop in the number of COVID cases among students: 203 positive cases and 1,388 quarantined on Wednesday compared to 260 positive cases and 1,493 quarantined on Sept. 3.
“We are showing a downward trend,” said school board chairman Duncan Jaggers. “We have other things in place now that we did not have right before school started.”
Jaggers also pointed to a recently signed state law that will allow school districts to switch to remote instruction if COVID conditions worsen. School boards are required by state lawmakers to vote monthly on their local masking policies. New COVID testing kits will allow students to return to class sooner if they have a negative test result, he added.
Harnett County has more than 19,000 students. It’s now among only four of 115 North Carolina school districts that aren’t requiring masks.
School board member Vivian Bennett questioned making masks optional when she said that only 35% of adults in Harnett County have been fully vaccinated for COVID-19. Vaccines are not available for children younger than 12.
Bennett said COVID cases, which have been rising due to the delta variant, won’t go down until the vaccination rate improves.
“If we would take the vaccination we could bring down,” Bennett. “A lot of people don’t believe in that so how is it coming down?”
Crowd calls for ending mask mandate
The vote came after speakers showed up at the Harnett meeting to lobby for the end of the mask requirement. Critics of mask mandates are showing up at school board meetings across the state. Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn is scheduled to make an appearance at the Johnston County school board meeting.
Speakers on Monday repeated many of the same arguments made at other board meetings, such as how it should be a personal choice whether to wear a mask. The crowd largely cheered after the board vote.
“If they want to wear masks they can,” said board vice chairman Don Godfrey. “If they don’t, they don’t’ have to.”
Godfrey also complained about President Joe Biden creating a rule that will require all companies with at least 100 workers to mandate COVID-19 vaccination or weekly testing for their employees before they can come to work.
“Are we going to allow the government to keep stomping on our back and stomping on our head to achieve what they want?” Godfrey said. “Because you know we can’t trust them.”
The Harnett decision came the same day that the Union County school board voted to immediately stop COVID-19 contact tracing and significantly curtail coronavirus quarantine requirements, The Charlotte Observer reported. Union is also not requiring masks.
This story was originally published September 13, 2021 at 8:52 PM.
