Health officials rule that students must wear masks in school

By Doug Spoon, Editor

K-12 students will be required to wear a face mask when indoors at school, the California Department of Health announced today. Those who refuse to do so will be barred from campus and will be offered alternative forms of education.

The announcement was made just three days after the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) issued national guidelines saying that students who have been vaccinated would not be required to wear masks inside at school. The state’s announcement today indicates it will go beyond those guidelines.

Today’s state announcement, which can read in its entirety here, says that only students with an approved medical exemption will be allowed to attend school without wearing a mask. If a student forgets to bring a mask, schools must provide one. The announcement reads, in part:

“In California, the surest path to safe and full in-person instruction at the outset of the school year, as well as minimizing missed school days in an ongoing basis, is a strong emphasis on the following: Vaccination for all eligible individuals to get COVID-19 rates down throughout the community; universal masking in schools, which enables no minimum physical distancing, allowing all students access to full in-person learning, and more targeted quarantine practices, keeping students in school; and access to a robust COVID-19 testing program as an available additional safety layer.

“Recent evidence indicates that in-person instruction can occur safely without minimum physical distancing requirements when other mitigation strategies (e.g., masking) are fully implemented.”

As indicated in the statement, today’s ruling will allow school districts to once again seat students at full capacity in classrooms because no minimum social distancing will be allowed. At the same time, it prevents school administrators from being in a position to determine which students have been vaccinated, which have not, and whether masks are worn by those who would’ve been subject to that rule.

“Detrimental effects of differential mask policies include potential stigma, bullying, isolation of vaccinated OR unvaccinated students, depending on the culture and attitudes in the school or surrounding community,” according to the state’s news release.

Even though the statement “allows all students access to full in-person learning,” the most recent announcement made by local districts is that distance learning would continue to be available to those who wish to participate. It is unclear at this time whether local districts would make adjustments in anticipation of increased distance learning enrollment of families opposed to the mask ruling, or how daily instruction at local schools might be affected.

Many local school administrators are on vacation this week, and none were immediately available for comment. The Romoland School District, the Perris Union High School District and Santa Rosa Academy do not have board meetings scheduled this month. Menifee Union School District has a board meeting scheduled Tuesday afternoon in which the subject could be discussed.

The state health department will continue to monitor the situation and will determine no later than Nov. 1 whether its ruling should be updated, according to the statement.

Even students exempted from wearing a mask because of medical conditions must wear a non-restrictive alternative, such as a shield with a drape on the bottom edge. Districts are urged to maximize indoor ventilation and vaccination of all students and staff.

State health officials say COVID-19 rates are again on the rise, due in part to the recently discovered Delta coronavirus variant and to a drop in the number of vaccinations.  In the most recent weekly COVID-19 update from Riverside County officials, there were 1,263 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the county during the previous week, and an additional 45 confirmed cases in Menifee.