Facing division, Centre County school districts prepare for PA mask mandate to take effect
Regardless of what school boards voted to implement in their health and safety plans, all schools — public and private — will have to enforce a new, statewide mask mandate recently handed down from the secretary of health.
The order, which goes into effect Tuesday, states anyone inside a school entity must wear a face covering indoors, regardless of vaccination status. This does not apply to sports.
Since the order was announced last week in response to the surging delta variant, superintendents of some Centre County school districts said they’ve received a flurry of emails and calls from concerned parents. Only one local district — State College — planned for universal indoor masking for the 2021-22 school year, and Penns Valley Area School District only recently made the switch due to rising COVID-19 cases.
In communications to families, Bald Eagle and Bellefonte area school district superintendents Scott Graham and Tammie Burnaford, respectively, pointed to possible exceptions in the state order. While the order includes several exceptions to the face covering requirements, it states that “All alternatives to a face covering, including the use of a face shield, should be exhausted before an individual is excepted for this (o)rder.”
Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, R-Benner Township, and a group of parents filed a lawsuit Friday seeking to overturn the mask mandate.
“Many of you have emailed me with concerns about how wearing masks has had a negative impact on your child, that the mandate is not legal, and that your child will not be wearing a mask on Tuesday,” Graham wrote in a Thursday letter. “I am not a lawyer, so I rely on our district’s solicitor for legal advice. He is adamant that it is legal and can be enforced. I have spoken to almost every superintendent in our area, and they have received the same advice from their solicitors.”
He said that while philosophical objections and disagreeing with wearing a mask are not considered valid excuses, medical documentation is. He pointed to a section in the order that states, “A school entity must provide reasonable accommodations for individuals who state they have a medical condition, mental health condition, or disability that makes it unreasonable for the person to maintain a face covering.”
He wrote that each child needs a separate signed note with medical documentation and that can be turned into the office, scanned and emailed or faxed to the school.
In a Thursday email to families, Burnaford also noted the exceptions laid out in the order. But for Mike Long, a parent of a kindergartner and third grader at Bellefonte’s Marion Walker Elementary School, the notion of parents seeking exemptions to the order is concerning.
“I am concerned for my children’s health, as well as those kids who are being sent without masks,” he wrote in an email, adding that he was “absolutely relieved” when the state order was announced. “When Gov. Wolf made the announcement, I was very happy, knowing that there is at least another layer of protection for our community and kids, many who are yet to qualify for vaccination.”
On Wednesday, Burnaford wrote to parents that “the mask issue is emotionally, and politically charged, and has polarized our country, state and school district. We have received many emails from parents on both sides of the issue. I have read every one of them, and I know the passion that each parent holds in seeking what’s best for their own children.”
Burnaford wrote, “our attorney advised that we can be held legally liable collectively as a district or individually if we do not comply.”
Some parents have asked if their students can be transferred to the district’s online learning academy while masks are required, she wrote, adding that such a switch will be allowed.
Gregg Paladina, superintendent of Philipsburg-Osceola Area School District, implored parents in a Friday letter to consider the district’s cyber school if they’re seeking to make a change to their child’s education.
“We realize that parents have choices and those choices affect how many staff the district can employ, the materials we can purchase for our remaining students, and so much more,” he wrote. “The reality of it is that out-of-district cyber and charter expenses hurt everyone associated with the district.”
After a tense Penns Valley school board meeting this week, Superintendent Brian Griffith sent a letter to parents on Thursday stating he understood the high emotions surrounding the mandate, but said the district is legally bound to the order.
“Largely in our school environment such exemptions are very limited. Under the order, philosophical objections or disagreeing with wearing a mask, are not considered valid excuses. Students who come to school and refuse to wear a mask without a medical exemption signed by a licensed physician would be subject to the school’s disciplinary policy. We do not want to put children in the middle of this,” he wrote.
