Freeport Area to comply with mask mandate; 18 covid cases and 88 quarantined kids since start of school
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Freeport Area School District officials will enforce the state’s mask mandate despite outcry from some parents imploring the school board and superintendent to ignore state Department of Health’s orders.
“Let it be up to us,” parent Megan Sproat told board members at a committee meeting Thursday night. “Let us have the right to choose what we feel is best for our children. Don’t take that choice away from us.”
Masks have been optional at the start of school Aug. 26, but that’s about to change.
Masks will be required starting Tuesday. Gov. Tom Wolf stated in early August he would not institute a mask mandate and instead have local school districts decide their related policies. But the state Health Department, with Wolf’s blessing, reversed course and is requiring face coverings for K-12 schools.
Republican leaders said Wolf was subverting democracy in announcing the mandate.
“A mandate is not a law,” said parent Rod Knox. “You have the ability to say no. Say no. In the 1930s, there were the good Germans who didn’t say no.”
Knox also told the board that masks were ineffective. He cited various pieces of information from the nonprofit Children’s Health Defense about how the risks of wearing face coverings outweigh the benefits.
88 kids quarantined
Superintendent Ian Magness said the district has nine active student covid cases with 88 students quarantined as of Thursday. There have been 18 total covid cases since the start of school.
Parent Sonya Mohr showed a box of masks with warning labels stating the use of the product does not remove the risk of contacting any disease or infection.
“I’m questioning where the science is,” Mohr said. “I understand (the state) is putting pressure on your guys, but the majority of us just want a choice.”
Mohr became emotional as she went on to talk about how her son attempted suicide due to stress and other factors over the past year. Other audience members attempted to comfort her.
Board President Daniel Lucovich said he is not a fan of masks, but everyone is trying to do their best to make sure students can remain in school full time.
“We were hoping everything would go great,” Lucovich said. “We aren’t the ones that implemented the mandate to wear masks. The governor of the state did. … It’s not OK. We don’t like it. I don’t want to wear a mask. I believe that a parent knows their child better than 670,000 pediatricians that we don’t even know where they were from.
“You know what’s right for your child. You should be the one to govern your child. Unfortunately, that’s not the way it really works all the time.”
Lucovich also noted school officials who fail to adhere to the mandate could face lawsuits.
“We don’t know what a parent will do to us,” he said. “Maybe nobody in this room will (file a suit), but there’s somebody that may. We are worried (about safety) and we do everything we can to protect every student in this school district. … We have to listen to the mandates.”
Several people in the audience shouted out to district officials to go against state orders.
One parent, prior to the outbursts, offered pocket Constitutions for anyone who wanted one.
What happens if masks aren’t used?
Parents repeatedly questioned what would happen if students refused to wear masks.
Magness said the district would provide masks to students who show up without one, and would notify their parents if they refused to wear it.
The student would not be permitted to be in class with their peers. They would have to learn virtually in some other location in the school or be picked up by their parent/guardian.
Senior Caroline Seagriff said she participated in online learning last year because she didn’t want to wear a mask at school. She said it resulted in a poor academic experience with insufficient communication with teachers and loss of student socialization.
“I felt as though the people doing school in school had more help than what I did online,” she said. “I think that the whole online thing takes away from your high school experience, and it sucks.”
There were some concerns about the district possibly calling the Office of Children, Youth and Families if a student repeatedly refuses to wear a mask and a parent also does not comply with the mandate and subsequent responses.
Magness said he does not see that being necessary. He noted parents would have to provide some documentation if their children could not wear a mask due to medical reasons.
“We’re imploring, close to begging, parents to help us get through this as we did last year,” Magness said. “We are asking, as partners in this, to make this work.”
More information about district activities, including a covid tracker of cases and quarantines, is available at freeport.k12.pa.us.