My children go to public schools, and they’re doing well. Where we live, the schoolteachers and administrators welcome feedback, and there’s an open door of communication. In Virginia, though, school administrators are so adamant that they, more than parents, know what is best for children that they are suing Gov. Glenn Youngkin over his decision to make masks in schools optional.
Seven school boards — Fairfax County, Prince William County, Alexandria, Arlington, Richmond, Falls Church, and Hampton — have filed a lawsuit challenging Youngkin’s executive order that lifted the mask mandate in public schools. Younkin’s order, one of the first things he did when he took office, revokes the ability of schools to require masks and allows parents to choose.
The school boards claim that the governor’s executive order cannot override a March 2021 commonwealth law that says local school boards should follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. Of course, the CDC recommends “universal indoor masking by all students (ages 2 years and older), staff, teachers, and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status.”
Teachers, school administrators, and parents alike should be celebrating Younkin’s order, not attempting to defeat it via litigation. Not only does it restore rights to parents, but it likely would free most children from having to wear masks, which are cumbersome, inhibit learning, and are likely ineffective for children.
Carrie Lukas, a mother who sends her children to Fairfax County Public Schools, documented what happened when she tried to go along with Youngkin’s order and sent her children to school unmasked.
So @fcpsnews had security, police & a public affairs flack at the door of my elementary school today, all to deal with “threat” of my unmasked 7 and 9 year olds. They ordered a local journalist off the property who wanted to witness my polite attempt to exercise opt-out rights. pic.twitter.com/8vUQMu9ywz
— Carrie Lukas (@carrielukas) January 25, 2022
The cops were called mainly because there was a local reporter there, I believe, but he wasn’t filming children that I could see. The school administrator was very polite, as was I. My problem is with the unlawful policy of the district, not the school.
— Carrie Lukas (@carrielukas) January 25, 2022
These lawsuits are worrisome for multiple reasons. The claim that cloth masks are helpful and thus should be required is not based on sound data. Surely, by now, schools can simply observe this due to the fact that even people who are both vaccinated and wear masks still contract COVID-19. The fact that school officials would sue to force children to wear masks, willfully denying science, is unsettling to say the least. The statistical chance of children dying from COVID-19 is 0.00-0.26%.
Even more disturbing is the fact that seven school districts are suing to take rights away from parents. Parents, not schools, have the fundamental right to guide their children through life. Of course, schools have rules and regulations, and if children are to attend public schools, they must abide by them. But this is not a dress code regulation or a rule banning pocket knives from school.
The question of whether masks are even helpful in mitigating the spread of COVID-19 has been hotly debated, as has the problem of children in the middle of their developing years being forced to wear them all day. The school districts hope to regain the ability to override parents and force their children to wear masks, even though there’s little data showing that when children wear them, they slow the spread.
Good for the people of Virginia to vote for a Republican such as Youngkin, who immediately tried to enact radical change in his state. Unfortunately, the problem goes much deeper and does not bode well for Virginia’s public school systems.
Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a Fort Worth Star-Telegram opinion writer and previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota.
