JERSEY SHORE – While the countdown to unmask students and staff at schools around the state has begun, some parents are asking, why wait?
After months of debates which have made some Board of Education meetings a verbal battlefield between parents, school administrators and board members, Governor Phil Murphy announced that he will lift the executive order requiring masks for everyone who enters a school building as of March 7.
That order impacts all public schools and all child care settings leaving boards to set policy on whether mask wearing will become optional or remain. School districts such as Newark have already stated they intend to keep the mask mandate through the end of the school year but it is widely believed that many school districts will go mask optional.
Board members in Lacey Township have already said prior to the Governor’s announcement that should it become possible for them to make the decision, that they would vote to make it optional. Mask wearing in that school district has been a contentious issue which has seen several board meetings canceled due to a Board member’s own refusal to wear a mask and a substantial number of audience members doing the same.
Administrators and board members in Jackson have received an earful from angry parents who made it clear that they feel mask wearing is not effective and is hurting the mental health of their children.
During his press conference Governor Phil Murphy said “masking continues to be an important tool in preventing the spreading of COVID. It should be used in many circumstances.” He added however that the metrics of COVID cases declining and hospitalizations also lessening substantially, led to his decision to lift the mandate that he put in place at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.
The State Health Department will be issuing updated guidelines for school districts to determine their own individual needs regarding mask wearing prior to March 7. Governor Murphy said that the 30-day gap was made to give school districts time to make adjustments and to determine their own individual plans of action.
“This is a huge step back to normalcy for our kids,” the governor said.
Some parents however, felt it should have taken affect immediately.
“I’m sure there are strings attached by him waiting,” a Lacey Township resident said on social media.
Jackson resident Jennifer Gallegher who formed the Jackson Township Fresh Faced Schools Facebook page said, “dangling the carrot as usual. Parents need to stop complying and start sending their children unmasked.
“Make it known we are done. Our children are done suffering and there’s not a chance in hell we’re ever going to allow masking ever again. No government agency or representative is ever going to step on parents toes again when it comes to decision making for our children,” she added.
“Why wait to until March 7th?” Jackson resident Drew Donegan asked.
Jackson and Lacey were among the school districts that wrote to the governor asking before the start of the current school year for the decision of mask wearing for students, staff and visitors, to be left to the individual school districts citing that local officials knew their school community better.
Jackson Superintendent Nicole Pormilli said earlier in the school year that school officials and members of the community wanted an optional masking policy but that wish was superseded by the governor’s executive order extension. She and her counterpart in Lacey Township, Vanessa Clark told residents that the school district needed to abide by the executive order or face penalties such as losing additional state aid funding.
Lacey, Jackson, Brick and Toms River are among the Ocean County school districts that were hit hard by the state’s revised S-2 state aid funding formula.
Health experts have said that masks and vaccination are the two most important ways to combat the virus.
In a well-publicized example, an unmasked, unvaccinated teacher passed the virus on to half of her students, as well as some of their families. This took place in May in Marin County, California – one of the counties with the highest vaccination rates in the state. The elementary school teacher was reading aloud to the class, and students closer to her had a higher rate of transmission. In this particular case, the teacher dismissed her symptoms as allergies. The virus then spread to other kids in school through siblings and a slumber party. Several of the parents were vaccinated but still got the Delta variant, which has been shown to be much more contagious, even with vaccinations.
The governor commended school leaders and educators who supported his mask mandate and other COVID-19 health guidelines during his recent announcement. He also asked educational leaders to watch out for any potential bullying or demeaning actions toward those who choose to continue wearing masks within schools saying such behavior should not be tolerated.
“We didn’t want to pull back too early,” Murphy said regarding lifting the mandate policy. “We aren’t going to manage COVID to zero. We have to live with COVID as we move from the pandemic to the endemic phase of this virus.”
~Chris Lundy contributed to this story
