A New York school board meeting was canceled. A Tennessee meeting devolved into chaos and name-calling. A 12-year-old Florida student found her voice advocating for masks to protect her younger brother. In a protest earlier this month, a North Carolina school board was “overthrown.”
Emotions ran high on both sides as school boards across the country debated mask mandates, generating stunning video footage that bombarded social media. Some parents showed up to pressure local officials to require masks in defiance of state laws, while others used debunked science to argue masks should not be required.
“The parents need to be the boss of what’s best for their children,” Anna Penola, a parent of four, told the Michigan State Board of Education, which decided to support local districts’ choices on masking.
“This is a matter of life and death,” countered Mike Siegel, a parent of two elementary students in Austin, Texas, and a former Democratic congressional candidate, who urged his county to require masks.
As the delta variant of the coronavirus has run rampant throughout much of the country, more children are becoming infected and ending up in hospitals. More than 90% of COVID-19 cases affecting children now are caused by the delta variant.
Experts don’t know whether the variant is causing worse symptoms in children than earlier strains of the virus, but they do know it’s more contagious. Kids under 12 are still ineligible for a vaccine.
The Backstory: More kids are getting COVID just as school resumes.
Should kids wear masks in school? These states have banned mandates despite experts’ pleas
They also know that wearing a mask is instantaneous protection from infection, even in environments where only partial masking is taking place.
In Florida, 12-year-old Lila Hartley of Jacksonville made headlines when she stood up to her school board and asked for a masking requirement. She’s vaccinated, but her 10-year-old brother Will is ineligible for a shot.
“I am so worried that if masks are not required, my brother could go to school one day and the next, be dying in the hospital,” Lila wrote on a wide-ruled notepad. “We are siblings so we have our rivalries, but I don’t know what I would do if he died, especially if it was caused by a place that means so much to him, school.”
Should kids wear masks in school?: These states have banned mandates despite experts’ pleas
Her plea came after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order prohibiting masking mandates in schools and threatened the salaries of local school officials who defied the order. Several counties, including Broward, Duval, Hillsborough, Orange and Palm Beach, have announced mask mandates in defiance of the governor.
Lila’s parents have supported her as she attended a rally outside her district headquarters and plans to lobby her principal to provide more outdoor seating at school.
Most schools in the Petal School District in Mississippi are implementing temporary mask mandates after a Change.org petition started by parents urged administrators to comply with CDC and state health officials’ recommendation for masking in schools.
But plenty of parents across the country are up in arms against measures to limit the spread of the virus like masking and vaccine requirements in schools. Many are fueled by misinformation or the simple desire to see their children in a normal school setting.
An all-day, sometimes fiery meeting of the Michigan State Board of Education saw commenters spread misinformation about vaccines and masks, with some parents even threatening to remove their children from the public school system. It ended with the board not taking a firm stance at all.
Elsewhere, a Tennessee school board meeting descended into threats and insults as a mob of anti-mask parents formed, angry at local health care providers who recommended a mask mandate for a district just south of Nashville.
A video shows a masked man who spoke in favor of the mask mandate leaving the public meeting and a crowd of angry people surrounding and berating him as he walked to his car.
Health care workers met by protesters at a school board mask meeting
Hundreds of parents yelled at doctors, nurses and others who had successfully advocated for a mask mandate in Tennessee’s Williamson County.
USA TODAY, Storyful
In Colorado, more than 200 parents, children and community members attended an anti-mask rally outside a meeting for a school board that instituted a mask mandate. They were countered by a half-dozen teachers and others in the community who supported the mandate.
Ahead of a Brevard County School Board meeting in Florida where the board voted to leave masks optional, pro-mask and anti-mask groups clashed, exchanging shouts and insults.
Despite the controversy, some facts are clear.
Children are contracting COVID-19, and at higher rates than before. There were 93,824 child COVID-19 cases nationwide reported July 29 through Aug. 5, or 15% of the total weekly reported cases, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. “After declining in early summer, child cases have steadily increased since the beginning of July,” the academy reports.
And, children want to be able to stay in school. For many, the cost of mask mandates is worth it.
“It’s fine by me if it keeps everyone safe,” high school senior Eliel Acevedo told the Arizona Republic.
Contributing: Kate Mabus and Alia Wong, USA TODAY; The Detroit Free Press; The Austin-American Statesman; The Florida Times-Union; The Hattiesburg American; The Tennessean; The Fort Collins Coloradoan; and The Arizona Republic