NC school board drops masks, reduces quarantines over objections of health officials
Harnett County school leaders will make face masks optional and shorten COVID-19 quarantine requirements for students and staff over the objections of local health officials.
Tuesday will mark the first day that face masks won’t be required inside Harnett County schools since the school year began. New rules are also going into effect that say a person who is exposed to COVID-19 but who hasn’t tested positive for the virus can return after a seven-day quarantine, instead of the 10-day wait previously required and recommended by public health officials.
John Rouse, the Harnett County health director, asked the school system Monday to continue requiring face masks and at least a 10-day quarantine period. Harnett has more than 19,600 students.
But the Harnett County school board voted 4-1 on Monday to stick with their decision from last month to make masks optional and to have a shorter quarantine period. Board member Vivian Bennett was the lone person to vote against the change.
Superintendent Aaron Fleming warned Monday there could be consequences from not requiring masking. That includes the possibility of turning to remote learning because so many more people are quarantined.
“I do fear quarantines could go up with optional masking, because they have been high even with masks being mandatory,” Fleming said. “I have not been shy about saying that. Quarantine numbers are why masks have been mandatory to this point.
“If we continue to move to optional masks, I will commit to continuing to track quarantines, positive cases. I will report any concerns immediately to the board. We may have to enter remote learning at a school or multiple schools.”
Most districts require masking
Most of North Carolina’s 115 school districts are requiring face masks to be worn inside schools with a few also mandating they be worn be outdoors as well. But on Sept. 14, the Harnett County school board voted 3-2 to make face coverings optional, beginning Oct. 5.
With masks set to become optional this week, Rouse sent a letter Sept. 24 asking school leaders to reconsider. Most of his letter addressed the quarantine changes, but Rouse said he “would also recommend that the Harnett County School System continue to require masks be worn in the schools.”
Dr. Lori Langdon, a pediatrician in Lillington, also urged the school board to continue requiring masks.
“Our concern is that if we don’t have a mask mandate, we’re just going to begin a countdown back to virtual school, and that’s not what any of us want,” Langdon said at Monday’s meeting. “I’m sharing these concerns out of genuine worry and concern and love.”
The reduction in quarantine length comes as parents complained about children missing out on schoolwork.
Schools lower quarantine length
The district is following state guidelines that say students don’t have to quarantine, even if they’re exposed to a person who tested positive for COVID-19, as long as both were consistently wearing masks.
But as of Tuesday, fewer students and school employees will be expected to wear masks. In those cases, the district’s new quarantine guidelines say that the exposed person can return back in as few as seven days.
Seven days is the minimum quarantine period allowed by the state Department of Health and Human Services.
To come back in seven days, the person must not be showing symptoms and must receive a negative COVID test no earlier than the fifth day of the quarantine.
Health official says wrong time to ease quarantines
Rouse argued that the quarantine length should stay at 10 days because of the high number of COVID cases in Harnett County overall, and especially for children.
Harnett County has seen the most COVID cases in the last six weeks than any other time during the pandemic, Rouse said. The county’s COVID test positivity rate is high at 11.6%. Health officials say 5% or lower is the target.
Children 18 and younger now account for 30% of Harnett County’s COVID cases, according to Rouse.
COVID cases among children have been rising. In 2020, there were 850 total COVID cases among people 18 and younger in Harnett County, compared to 2,651 cases this year through Sept. 24.
“I do understand and can appreciate the impact that these isolation/quarantine periods have on families,” Rouse wrote. “Hopefully in the near future when our case trends begin to decline, we can explore options for decreasing the quarantine periods.”
Heated emotions over masking
Under a new state law, school boards are required to vote monthly on their mask rules.
School board meetings have become heated statewide and nationally, with threats of violence being made in some cases against school officials and health professionals. Republican state lawmakers rejected an attempt last week to end the monthly mask voting requirement.
School board vice chairman Don Godfrey, who called COVID “Chinese germ warfare,” asked people to show civility over the mask issue.
“Please I ask you to refrain, if you’re listening to me, from calling one of us a dummy or ignorant because I’m not going to call you that,” Godfrey said. “I’m not going to stoop that low. “
Bennett, who wanted to keep the masks required, said they’ll help keep people safe.
“I could never vote to think that I might hurt some of the people that I know and don’t know in this county,” she said.
This story was originally published October 4, 2021 at 9:20 PM.
