Braintree Parents Clash On State's School Mask Mandate

BRAINTREE, MA — The Braintree School Committee affirmed the state's mask mandate Wednesday night, a decision that was largely expected following the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's (DESE) ruling Wednesday.

Braintree parents have been split on the decision, but most in attendance voiced frustration that their children are being forced to wear masks for at least the first month of the school year.

Parent Courtney Ramano said she doesn't understand why students should have to where masks, when they weren't required for the summer literacy program, which had just under 100 kids in it and no cases linked to it.

"That's nine hours at least five times a week, my daughter is wearing a mask," Ramano said. "That seems outrageous to me. I know she's at low risk."

"What's the long term solution?" Sam Huffs added. "Are we just planning to keep our young children in masks indefinitely? They're young children, who are the least likely to contract the disease, the least likely to get severely ill or die. It's risk management."

Just one parent spoke at the meeting in favor of masks, Seymour Curtis, who said other parents didn't feel they needed to attend, because of DESE's mandate.

"They didn’t think they had to give a say, and maybe they did have to," Curtis said. "I've had a relative die of COVID, and it's serious to me. It's serious to my daughter who lost a beloved relative."

School committee member Jennifer Dolan said the group at the meeting opposing the mask mandate weren't representative of all Braintree parents' positions. She said emails from parents she's received have been about 50-50, regarding the mask mandate.

Huffs and several other parents also asked the school committee if it would offer any resistance to the state's mandate. School committee Chair Tom Devin admitted he's had his own frustrations with DESE, but the decision is out of the school district's hands. He said nothing good would come from opposing DESE.

"We've been through a rough 16 months," Devin said. "I've gotten more black eyes that are never going to heal from some of the things I've had to deal with. [We're] making decisions on an hourly basis, trying to figure out, we come up with a policy, only to have the state walk in and supersede that policy. It looks like we're changing things, but they're changing the goal post on us too."

After the meeting, Patch interviewed Devin and asked him what the school committee's original plan was. Though he declined going into detail, he said Braintree's school mask plan was going to be "less cumbersome" than the state mandate.

As per state rules, the mask mandate, will last until at least Oct. 1, with the possibility of schools with at least 80 percent of students vaccinated being allowed to lift the mandate. School Nursing Director Kristen Houlihan said 50 percent of Braintree students ages 12-15 are fully vaccinated, and 80 percent of 16-19-year-old students have also gotten both shots or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

This means elementary school students will likely stay masked after Oct. 1, Houlihan said. Devin said the school committee will meet again before the end of September to reevaluate the mask policy.

Correction: The comment about emails being 50-50 was said by School Committee member Jennifer Dolan, not School Nursing Director Kristen Houlihan.