At its next meeting, scheduled for March 7, the School Committee plans to vote on a revision to its COVID-19 policy on face masks. The revision makes wearing masks voluntary as of March 9. The new policy recommends—but does not require—that those who are unvaccinated or immune-compromised continue to wear masks at school. The measure is likely to be approved, as it was discussed extensively at the committee’s Feb. 14 meeting.
As proposed by the policy subcommittee at a Feb. 28 meeting, the revised policy emphasizes, “Individual choice about mask wearing will be respected.” Neither those who still wear masks nor those who go without them should face bullying, school officials said.
The subcommittee left two exceptions to the mask-optional policy: Masks will still be required in the school nurses’ offices. And volunteers who come into classrooms or go on school field trips must wear masks while they are with students or teachers, either in the school buildings or on transportation.
New Metrics
The new policy also proposes several metrics that might lead the school district to reinstate mask requirements. Those metrics include county risk levels rising to the high category; townwide cases increasing week after week; or district testing that shows an increase of 10 cases in the schools from one week to the next. If two or more of the criteria are met, then the district leadership team and the school nurses will discuss whether to reintroduce mask requirements.
Masking was hotly debated at School Committee meetings last month, on both Feb. 9 and Feb. 14. Attendance at both meetings was high, topping 50 at the latter meeting, and the discussions were more acrimonious than earlier in the school year. Kelli Callaghan, who has been a frequent speaker on the masking issue, told the School Committee at the Feb. 9 meeting, “You should honestly be ashamed of yourselves. You’re teaching our kids fear, anxiety, that freedom is not real.”
At both meetings, several parents equated masking requirements for unvaccinated people to discrimination. David Kilkenny asserted the School Committee was violating the Civil Rights Act and also charged the schools with “forcing kids to wear experimental medical devices [masks] without their consent.”
Other parents sought a gradual plan to end masking. Rachel Kopay asked the committee to seek “an off-ramp”—a safe, well-planned exit—from masking, rather than an abrupt termination. Jennifer Russo, a physician, spoke in favor of that position, noting at the Feb. 9 meeting that intensive care units at hospitals were still full.
Several parents spoke up in favor of modeling civility, reminding participants that many students were also watching the proceedings.
The new policy (which is the ninth revision since August 2020), drew on guidance from a range of authorities: the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
