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Fayette school board keeps mask mandate, for now

Posted 2/23/21

The Fayette R-III Board of Education will keep the school district’s mask mandate in place, at least for now.

At their regular monthly meeting on Wednesday, February 17, board members …

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Fayette school board keeps mask mandate, for now

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The Fayette R-III Board of Education will keep the school district’s mask mandate in place, at least for now.

At their regular monthly meeting on Wednesday, February 17, board members heard from one concerned parent who is fed up with her kids having to wear masks all day at school. Amy Nation told the board that her online research proves that masks are ineffective at stopping viral transmission.

“If you do your research, you will not find good solid evidence that supports masks help stop or slow the spread of a virus,” she said.

Nation said she has a list of 22 people who are against the mask mandate.

“The Covid virus is real. The threat of Covid is not,” she said.

Missouri Governor Mike Parson on November 12, 2020, put forth new guidelines formed by Missouri’s Department of Health and Senior Service and Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). These new guidelines stipulate that if both individuals at school – the person diagnosed with COVID-19, and the person exposed to the positive case – are correctly wearing masks, the individual exposed does not need to quarantine. 

The measure effectively acts as a loophole to keep Missouri schools open in a time when many districts across the nation, predominately in urban areas, remain shuttered. 

Fayette adopted the mask mandate on November 18 during a time when the district was closed to in-person learning following an outbreak of COVID-19. Mass quarantines led to teacher and substitute shortages. Previous to the mandate, only teachers, administration, and staff were required to wear masks on school grounds.

Since the mandate was put in place, the school district estimates that 66 students—36 in December and 30 in January—did not have to be placed on quarantine because they were property wearing masks while in proximity to those who had tested positive. Positive cases have dropped dramatically since the measure was put into place. At the time of the February 18 meeting, there were no known positive cases in the school.

As the board has revisited the matter, several members have consistently expressed that while they don’t like forcing students to wear masks, the policy is working to keep the school open.

“I have a lot of test data and reports…that does prove (that masks work),” said freshman board member Aaron Bentley. 

Bentley is a project coordinator for FläktGroup SEMCO, a company that specializes in cutting-edge HVAC equipment for homes, hospitals, schools, and many other industrial applications. Because of his position there, he is exposed to test data from throughout the US and Europe with regard to air quality and filtering related to the virus. He described masks as two-way filters, similar to how HVAC equipment cleans the air inside of homes. “It’s the same concept. There’s no difference.”

Nation asserted that the virus is small enough to fit through even the tiniest openings in the materials from which masks are made.

“On its own it is. By itself, in a lab, in a Petrie dish, it is tiny. As it combines with hosts, it is not,” Bentley explained. “That moisture barrier around it, and the other items of the host, make it large enough to stop.

“One of the things I hear all the time is that it's a mosquito through a chain-link fence. That’s not realistic. That’s not truly what happens. In a laboratory, they tested that and they've shown that that’s not true.”

Each month, the board reexamines the efficacy of the mask policy. So far there has been no effort to repeal the mandate, although board members routinely discuss the matter at great length. At the BOE’s meeting on January 21, Dr. Kevin Frazer, the county’s health director, explained that without the mask mandate, it is likely some of the students among the (at the time) 60 who were allowed to stay in school could have gotten sick. That would have further ballooned the number of students in quarantine and out of school.

In a survey of 64 school staff members in January, 56 said they support keeping the mandate in place. Kelly Beeler, the district’s nurse, was among the respondents who supported the measure.

But while the mask mandate appears to have kept the district operating in-seat classes and lowering the spread of the coronavirus among students and staff, the measure isn’t without its problems. High school principal Patrick Tray reported to the board that masking among FHS students has led to frequent discipline issues. “The teachers are just tired of constant reminders of ‘pull it up,’ and ‘cover your nose’. There's a large group of one particular class who really lets them stay down almost to mouth level until someone finally yells at them.”

Tray said that final warnings of the threat of Friday detention have been delved out to those students. “I can't tell you how much I do not want to hand out that kind of discipline,” he told the board.

Reports by administrators indicate that the older the students, the more discipline issues occur. Clark Middle School principal Brent Doolin said he has had some issues, while Daly Elementary principal Cheri Huster reported no incidents.

Students are allowed breaks throughout the day from wearing masks, such as physical education (PE) classes, recess, and lunch periods. They are also allowed more frequent restroom breaks to help relieve mask fatigue. 

Tray said that at the high school, some teachers allow students to work in the hallways outside of the classrooms. About a half dozen will also utilize the conference room to study. They can take off their masks when not in proximity to other students.

Tray agreed with board vice-president Matt Hudson’s analogy that the mandate has turned teachers into prison guards.

“They don’t want to be there at all,” Tray said.

During the board’s discussion, Hudson iterated more than once that he desires a long-term plan that ultimately includes a termination for the mask policy. “We can’t keep just kicking this can down the road. We have to look at what we're going to do eventually. We have to have some sort of goal.”

Hudson was adamant in his aspiration that masks will not have to be worn when students begin the next school year in August.

“How safe is too safe,” Hudson asked. “After a while, you have to get on the football field and crack heads.” 

The Fayette district is currently at Green Level, which means there is little to no spread of the virus. Students would remain in school, although with more stringent measures in place, through Yellow Level. In the event the district again reaches Red Level, when substantial spread would drop the attendance rate below 80%, it would transition to online learning.

“I would totally vote for the mask mandate just the way I did in November because I think that is what kept us in school through December and the first part of January, without a doubt,” said board member Amber Overfelt. “If you look at the numbers there's no way we could've stayed in seat in December without it.” 

Numbers reported by the Howard County Public Health Department on the day of the meeting showed just nine active cases in the county, with three hospitalizations. 

“Our county numbers are to where we might not have to be in masks,” Overfelt said.

Ultimately the board took no action on the matter, effectively leaving the mandate in place. However, the board’s wellness committee will meet this week and consult with medical professionals. BOE member Shauna Young said that those local medical professionals with whom she has met, and who advise the county and school district, all support keeping the mask mandate. 

“In my opinion, the most solid information we have is from them. Otherwise, we are arbitrarily picking a point in time where we’re just saying we’ve had enough,” Young said.

“We made that decision in November for two reasons: because medical professionals were supportive, and because DESE gave us that option.

Nation asked that the committee also consults with Jeremy Maxwell, a local chiropractor. 

Bentley was joined on the wellness committee by fellow members Sarah Wies and Overfelt.

Fayette is one of two public school districts in Howard County to adopt the mask mandate. New Franklin also put the measure in place. Glasgow did not. Last week its high school had to switch to virtual learning after about half a dozen students there tested positive. 

“Even though the numbers in Howard County have been very low, we’re still seeing schools have to go to virtual learning because of cases,” Young said.

Other schools in the Lewis & Clark Conference that did not implement a mask mandate include Salisbury, Westran, and Marceline.

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