NC district won’t require masks despite thousands of students in COVID quarantine
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Union County dispute over COVID rules
Widespread quarantining of students has led to weeks-long arguing over public health authority and best practices.
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Just one public school district in the Charlotte region is sticking with its initial decision to not require masks in classrooms, bucking state and federal recommendations on how to limit COVID-19 infections.
Some parents are praising the Union County school board after its 5-4 vote Tuesday night to not adopt a mask mandate. Others are calling the decision dangerous and refusing to send their children to school.
Masks will remain optional in Union County Public Schools, despite requests from the superintendent, county health director and parents who believe masks will thwart the growing numbers of UCPS students who have COVID-19 or are having to quarantine due to possible exposure at school.
The number of coronavirus cases reported among school-age children and educators has increased significantly statewide, which health experts have said is to be expected, especially with the delta variant of COVID-19 being more contagious.
In Union County, the number of cases reported among students last week was more than double the caseload compared to the week prior. The public school system is less than one-third the size of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and Union County has nearly as many cases among students as CMS recently reported. By comparison, though, CMS has far fewer students or staff in quarantine, due to a strict mask policy aimed at limiting transmission of the virus in schools. Union County schools require masks only on buses.
A similar situation unfolded last week in Iredell County, where school board members voted to mandate masks indoors after the number of cases among children soared.
“The one strategy we have left that ensures more of our students remain in school is a mask mandate,” UCPS Superintendent Andrew Houlihan told the board. “I am concerned (with) the number of kids in quarantine.
“Our No. 1 job is to educate our children, and the best way to do that is in school.”
But a few board members have bristled at the fact that Union County’s Public Health Director Dennis Joyner hasn’t asked for a county mask mandate, but say the county is trying to force the school board to impose one.
“I pleaded with him to be at this meeting,” said UCPS board chairperson Melissa Merrell, who added that Joyner said he didn’t feel comfortable addressing the school board. Joyner also had to attend a county commissioner’s meeting that started an hour before the school board meeting.
COVID-19 cases more than doubled last week in Union County Public Schools, according to new data the district released last Friday. The number of students and staff quarantined last week rose to 5,410, from nearly 2,000 the previous week, according to the school system’s COVID-19 dashboard.
The number of positive cases in the district stood at 367 last week, compared with 176 the week before, the dashboard shows — 113 elementary students have tested positive, 91 middle school students and 133 high school students district-wide.
Of the students quarantined, 2,063 are elementary school students and more than 1,400 are middle school students and 1,660 are high school students. Union County enrolls roughly 41,000 students.
Union County remains one of the few districts in the state to not require masking. As of Sept. 8, all but three of the state’s 115 school systems have opted for mask mandates. In the past month, 51 districts reversed their decision to go mask optional due to the surge in COVID-19 cases from the delta variant.
UCPS board member Joseph Morreale made the motion to make masks mandatory, saying: “(the) goal (is) to keep kids in the classroom as much as we can.”
Various parents spoke at Tuesday’s meeting, including William Howe, who told board members that masks “should be a freedom of choice.”
“We should not let fear dictate our decision-making,” Howe said.
‘Freedom of choice’
UCPS Assistant Superintendent Jarrod McCraw said case trends “continue upward.” On Tuesday, the county had a 16.7% positivity rate, compared to 13.9% on Aug. 18. Across a seven-day span, the county saw an average 153.1 new COVID-19 cases per day, compared to 125.4 on Aug. 18.
“The community is in a very dangerous situation due to the recklessness and irresponsibility of the UCPS Board of Education,” Amy Gallagher, who has three children enrolled in UCPS, told the Observer.
While Gallagher’s oldest daughter, a freshman in high school, has been vaccinated and continues to wear a mask at school, her two youngest children, who will be 11 years old in November, are being kept home for safety reasons.
“Until the UCPS BOE mandates masks be worn by all in the schools and/or they can receive a vaccination, we plan to keep them home,” Gallagher said. “To keep them engaged in learning, we have them using an online instruction platform”
Gallagher continued: “If a mask mandate was in place, I believe that our kids would be safe in school.”
Merrell, who voted to keep masks optional, said: “I voted for the teachers and parents who asked me to be a voice for freedom of choice.”
‘Passing up a chance’
Last month, a group of 35 physicians, all with children who attend public schools in Union County, sent a letter to the district’s school board charging members of disregarding expertise and “endangering us all.”
Members of the group of doctors spoke during the public comment section of the meeting Tuesday and also told the Observer earlier that school leaders have “largely ignored” advice, despite weeks of urging the board to require masks in schools.
Last month, seven members of the nine-member BOE voted against making masks mandatory. Board members John Kirkpatrick IV and Morreale voted for the mandate.
Kirkpatrick said Tuesday night that colleagues who talked about wanting to keep kids in school passed up a chance to do it and created more work for exhausted nurses doing contact tracing.
Gov. Roy Cooper last week signed a wide-ranging coronavirus bill for schools that requires North Carolina school boards to vote monthly if they want to continue requiring face masks.
This story was originally published September 8, 2021 at 10:35 AM.
