Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools keeps mask rule — but some want change
With news late Tuesday that Mecklenburg County’s health director may soon recommend lifting the local mask mandate, some want Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to do the same.
Board members Lenora Shipp and Ruby Jones said they’re hearing from teachers and parents that masks are making them feel safe, while board member Rhonda Cheek, a nurse, said that masks are causing language, reading development and phonics struggles in children because “they need to see a mouth.”
The school district has been following state and county COVID-19 rules and related restrictions but also has its own policy requiring masks be worn indoors by employees and students.
On Tuesday, the school board voted to keep the current policy in place — a required monthly vote called for under North Carolina law. Using masks indoors to curb the spread of the virus is recommended but not required by state health officials. By contrast, a local public health rule requires masks indoors, including in schools.
Cheek called on the county to evaluate its policy.
At a Tuesday county commissioners meeting, Mecklenburg County Health Director Raynard Washington said COVID-19 infections are declining and if that continues, he may recommend next week ending a county public health rule that requires masks indoors and in schools.
Jones agreed that masks are a burden and she would like “us to move eventually” from masks. She said her inbox is filled with both parents and teachers who want to continue the mask mandate and those who oppose it.
“We have quite a few schools, a lot of schools, that are not safe,” Jones said, adding that there are ventilation issues, small classrooms and a teacher shortage that is forcing larger class sizes. “A lot of factors go into keeping not only our children healthy (but) the parents they go home to.”
Several parents Tuesday night pleaded with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board to make masks optional.
Citing long-term harm and interference with non-verbal communication, parents asked the board to “remove mandates now.”
“It’s damaging to have children in masks for this long,” CMS parent Dana Hoegh-Guldberg told board members. “As soon as the county mandate is lifted, we, as parents demand (the district do the same.)”
Parent Tim Berghoff said: “We were late on opening schools and now we’re late on the unmasking.”
The board’s student advisor Juan Torres Muñoz said despite what parents think, many students feel safe with a mask mandate and want it enforced.
Board member Sean Strain charged his fellow board members of not planning for the moment the county lifts the mask mandate.
“Seven members of this board have refused to consider it or even discuss it publicly tonight,” Strain said.
Board chair Elyse Dashew said she, for one, is looking forward to revisiting the conversation at whatever date the county lifts the mandate.
“Until then, it’s political posturing,” Dashew said, “which I don’t think we have time for.”
County commissioners have made it clear that they would not remove the mask mandate without the recommendation of public health officials like Washington.
The Observer reported earlier Tuesday that “over the last week, the 7-day average positivity rate locally has dropped from 27.6% to 20.8%, county health data show. In early January, that number was around 32%.”
“As I mentioned last month, we are not going to get ahead of the county,” board member Jennifer De La Jara said. “I look forward to hearing the numbers, and I look forward to that conversation. It’s not a refusal of having the conversation. It’s just that we’re under a mask mandate from the county.”
This story was originally published February 8, 2022 at 8:24 PM.
