San Francisco private schools and many Bay Area districts expect to abandon mask mandates later this month, but the city’s public school district has decided against the change and declined to provide details or dates for when their 49,000 students will be able to drop face coverings.
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District officials say they will continue to require masks indoors, noting that county and state health officials “strongly recommend” students and staff continue to use them.
But require and recommend are not the same, and many families and health experts are asking for clarity on what criteria the district is using to decide when it will lift the mandate.
The district said masking is part of the current discussions with the union.
The San Francisco Unified’s stance will leave its public school students following a different set of rules than many if not most private school students in the city, as well thousands of other students across the Bay Area, where officials in most counties have already announced they will lift the mask requirement as of March 12.
While some families felt relief that masks would stay on in San Francisco public schools, others expressed frustration at the lack of clarity and metrics.
Districts in Contra Costa, San Mateo, Solano, Marin, Santa Clara counties as well as many others across the state announced this week they would follow the state’s lead and leave mask use up to individuals, including Santa Clara Unified, San Ramon Unified, Mill Valley Elementary and Mt. Diablo Unified.
Alameda County and Berkeley health officials announced Thursday they would also lift the mandate, which would likely mean some districts there would also make masks optional, although Oakland and other districts had not yet said what they will do.
In San Francisco, at least a handful of private schools have also said they will stop requiring masks, including Sacred Heart Cathedral, Adda Clevenger School and all of the city’s Archdiocese schools, which serve 23,000 students.
In addition, city health officials announced public buildings will no longer require masks either, except during public meetings.
That means public school students can go into city libraries, City Hall, boba shops, malls, restaurants and virtually any other venue or retail establishment without a mask. Classrooms will be virtually the only place they will have to wear one.
Bay Area infectious disease experts say that while SFUSD’s decision to maintain the mask mandate is not in lockstep with many other districts, it has both positives and negatives — and overall, is a complicated issue.
“I see both sides,” said UCSF infectious disease Peter Chin-Hong, saying the current “gray zone” of the pandemic has led to a lot of confusion and frustration, especially as it relates to schools.
Click here to read the full article at the San Francisco Chronicle
More stupidity from the school people. Consider this:
“Relying on a cloth mask to filter out tiny 5micron sized covid spores is like building a chain link fence to protect your house from mosquitoes!”
Don’t know the author but it certainly makes sense to everyone except those in charge.
The virus is of little concern. Its the weakened power and control they refuse.