Mask Mandates In Allegheny Co. School Districts: Latest Info

ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PA — School districts in most counties across Pennsylvania are ignoring Center for Disease Control & Prevention recommendations that anyone entering a school building should be masked regardless of coronavirus vaccination status.

The exception appears to be in Allegheny County, where more than half the school districts in the state with mask mandates are located and where advice from medical experts has been heeded.

But as the school year begins across the state, the situation remains in flux. Consider the North Allegheny School District, where an administrative edict requiring masks was overruled by the school board. A group of parents and students challenged the board's decision in court, where a judge issued a restraining order that reinstated the mask mandate - for now.

The issue was expected to surface at a school board meeting Wednesday, but the meeting quickly ended because many residents attending it defied the judge's order and refused to wear masks.

Welcome to back-to-school time in the pandemic era, where opinion on whether masks should be required is divided and often a flashpoint for vigorous, vociferous dispute.

Gov. Tom Wolf this week asked the state Legislature to require masks in every school district. after most districts decided to ignore the CDC's recommendation. In a letter to GOP leaders who control the General Assembly, he noted that only 59 of the state's 474 school districts had mask mandates in plans submitted to the state Department of Education at the end of July.

Republican leaders took less than a day to reject Wolf's request, noting local leaders in most communities had already made mask decisions they believe are in the best interests of their residents.

"We believe that the current approach - allowing local officials to manage and respond as needed - makes the most sense and should be continued," Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman of Centre County and House Speaker Bryan Cutler of Lancaster County wrote in a letter to Wolf.

Of the 59 districts statewide with mask mandates, 30 are located in Allegheny County:

• Allegheny Valley

• Avonworth

• Bethel Park

• Carlynton

• Clairton

• Cornell

• East Allegheny

• Fox Chapel

• Gateway

• Hampton

• Keystone Oaks

• Montour

• Moon

• Mt. Lebanon

• North Allegheny

• North Hills

• Northgate

• Penn Hills

• Pine-Richland

• Pittsburgh Public Schools

• Quaker Valley

• Riverview

• Shaler

• South Fayette

• Sto-Rox

• Upper St. Clair

• West Allegheny

• West Mifflin

• Wilkinsburg

• Woodland Hills

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