NEW JERSEY – After announcing in late June that a statewide mandate for students and staff to wear masks would not be required for the new school year, the governor is expected to release new regulations calling for the masking up of students in grades K-12.
Governor Phil Murphy will now be requiring masks for the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year due to rising COVID-19 case numbers in New Jersey. His original plan was to leave it up to individual school districts to establish rules on face coverings.
He also spoke strongly about school districts across the state resuming full day in-person classes in the wall with no option for virtual instruction.
The governor left on the table the option to mandate masks if the state saw an increase in coronavirus totals. “We’ll do what we have to do,” he said during one of his press conferences last month.
This might complicate school districts’ ability to provide school lunches as masks are removed to eat. The governor is expected to discuss the new rules during a visit to an East Brunswick elementary school on August 6. A major public health announcement is listed on his daily schedule.
The announcement will draw its share of controversy as many parents and those who oppose masks have expressed their view that children should not be wearing masks.
Middlesex County Democratic Senator Joseph Vitale is in support of the move. He chairs the Senate’s health committee and was quoted by NJ Advance Media as saying “This is the right call and safe call, even if it is unpopular with some.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended in July that everyone in grades K-12 wear masks due to the delta variant of the Coronavirus which has led pandemic numbers to rise across America. The agency stated masks were essential because children who are under the age of 12 are in eligible for vaccination in the country.
Face coverings were also recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The governor lifted the state’s indoor mandate of masks in May. He has not restored that mandate following the CDC’s more recent recommendations but like area states like New York, is strongly urging face masks for indoor venues that were considered to be high risk.
“All options are on the table,” the governor said this week in regards to curtailing the spread of the virus. The Democratic governor is facing re-election this fall facing Republican Jack Ciattarelli, a former state assemblyman and who along with many Republican officials has opposed mask mandates.
Ciattarelli was on the campaign trail in Ocean County speaking to voters during Jackson’s recently held National Night Out event. Officials there have been very vocal in their view that Murphy mishandled the handling of the pandemic and overstepped his authority with his use of executive orders that shut down the state last year.
While some opponents of masks have argued that children are much less likely to catch severe cases of COVID-19 other officials have expressed that student could pass the virus to their teachers and family members both of whom are at greater risk.
Today 1,345 cases of the coronavirus were recorded which were the most confirmed cases for one day in three months. It was also announced that four individuals died of the virus. Hospitalizations and deaths remain below the pandemic highs seen previously which is credited to New Jersey’s high vaccination rate. More than twice the number of hospitalizations in the last 30 days number about 600 patients as of August 4.
The social media backlash has already started with a thread on a Jackson Facebook page asking parents whether they would “stand up for their kids about not wearing masks in school??” I freaking hope so, they can’t stop all of us let’s hear it.”
Response to that post included a call to “stand up and band together. I don’t want to hear people saying well it’s ‘the new normal’ this not normal.’”
“There is no science behind this! You will make children sicker never mind the COVID virus. The federal and state government shouldn’t be dictating how we should live our lives and our children’s,” another resident posted in response.
