Mask-Only Classrooms A Possibility In Manatee County

MANATEE COUNTY, FL — Despite dozens of parents and medical professionals calling for the School District of Manatee County to put a mask mandate in place for the first day of school Tuesday, the School Board of Manatee County held off on making any changes to the district’s mask policy at a special meeting Monday.

This means masks remain optional for all Manatee County students and staff in schools and other facilities, as well as on buses.

This policy is in accordance with the recommendations of the Florida Department of Health and the Florida Department of Education, and an executive order on masks in the schools by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Still, many parents asked the board to put a mask mandate with an option for opting out of it in place for the upcoming 2021-22 school year.

David Dean, guardian to four students, called the governor’s executive order and current guidelines from the state Department of Education “ridiculous rules (that) will inevitably lead to more delta (variant) transmissions.”

He pleaded with the school board to adopt a new mask policy.

“I'm begging you to reinstitute a temporary mask mandate, at least until we can get vaccines (for children), with an opt-out (option), if that's what's required,” Dean said. “It’s unbelievable that I have to be here and beg this.”

Another parent, Kristin Elwell, implored the board to follow “guidance from leading health experts,” such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics, which both encourage students to wear face masks at school.

“We have exactly one opportunity to reopen our public schools safely,” she said, adding, “We have all seen the headlines. Florida is in trouble.”

A representative of the Manatee County Democratic Party also encouraged the school board to adopt a stricter mask policy for the school year.

“Masks, social distancing and the vaccine have been scientifically proven to significantly reduce the spread of this disease,” he said.

Despite most speaking in favor of a mask mandate, some anti-mask parents spoke out as well.

“It is the individual liberty of my child and others to breathe freely,” one mother, Katie Burns, said.

Another speaker called mask mandates “unconstitutional, illegal (and) immoral.”

Ultimately, based on the governor’s executive order and recommendations from state agencies, the board decided not to put a mask policy with an opt-out option in place.

“We’re talking semantics,” new board member Chad Choate said. “It’s the same as if (there was) a mask mandate with an opt-in (option). It’s just flipping words around. It’s all the same. Wear the mask if you want to wear the mask. Absolutely fantastic. If you don’t, you don’t have to.”

Board Chair Charlie Kennedy agreed with Choate on the language.

“To me, it’s a distinction without a difference to say masks are optional but we have mandatory masks but there’s an opt out is the exact same thing,” he said.

He said he’s in favor of a mask mandate with an opt-out option, though, as it supports students who want to wear masks.

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“If it were up to me, we would have a mask mandate for everybody until we squashed this thing, but it’s not up to me, it’s up to this school board,” Kennedy added.

School board members indicated they will likely pick the topic of masks up again Wednesday at their regular meeting.

An option still on the table is creating segregated classrooms of masked and unmasked students at elementary schools.

In recent weeks, the district sent a survey out to parents of elementary school students asking just two questions.

When asked if they plan to send their child to school wearing a mask, parents or guardians with children 11 and younger seem split — 2,087 families said their children in that age range will be wearing masks, while 2,216 said their children won’t be wearing them.

The district also asked parents and guardians if they’d prefer their children be put in a classroom setting with other students wearing a face mask or covering, if possible. In response, 1,679 families said yes, while 1,580 said no.

Rev. James Golden, the board’s vice chair who also represents District 5, said he like to send these elementary school families a new survey with more specific questions, including whether they prefer that their children attend only classes with other students and teachers who wear masks or only classes with other students and teachers who don’t wear masks.

“The third option is very clear, ‘I do not have any preference for either a or b,’” he said. “We have the capacity to be inclusive of all three of those options.”

He added that he’s concerned for elementary school students because there’s “nothing to prevent the spread of the virus but masks,” noting that the vaccine is only available to students 12 and older.

Other board members seemed receptive to the possibility of segregating classrooms by mask status but had some questions about how it might work. Board member Gina Messe asked how they would handle classroom changes if families switched from wearing masks to not wearing masks.

Superintendent Cynthia Saunders said she would speak with the Florida Department of Education about whether the district could legally create classroom rosters based on mask-wearing habits before the board continued its discussion about sending parents a new survey on the topic.