'Pandemic isn't going away ': Louisville Catholic schools making masks optional
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Several Louisville Catholic high schools are revising their COVID-19 policies to make wearing masks optional, as the Archdiocese of Louisville has left masking protocols for high schools up to school leadership.
Sacred Heart Academy, Assumption High School and St. Xavier High School students and faculty will have the option to wear masks starting Dec. 6.
In a statement to the Courier Journal, a Sacred Heart spokesperson said masking up will be an option "for all students, faculty, and staff. Masks will continue to be required for all students, faculty, and staff on buses per federal mandate. All other COVID-19 policies and procedures at Sacred Heart Academy remain unchanged."
St. Xavier said, “At this time, wearing masks will be optional for all students and at parents’ discretion. Masks will continue to be required for all students, faculty, and staff on buses per federal mandate.”
Assumption High School is making a similar move, as most of its student and faculty are vaccinated, the school president and principal announced last Monday in a letter to parents.
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The policy was made following "consultation with the Archdiocese of Louisville and in conjunction with other Catholic high schools," President Mary Lang and Principal Martha Tedesco said in a statement.
They added that the all-girls Catholic school has not had any new cases in five weeks and that more than 70% of students and 100% of faculty have been vaccinated.
The pair said despite the identification of the new COVID-19 omicron variant, "what we know for certain is that while COVID remains unpredictable, this pandemic isn’t going away any time soon, and we will likely be moving back and forth between masks being optional and required while we continue to navigate these uncertain times."
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Assumption is recommending that unvaccinated individuals still wear a mask.
It is also changing its policies surrounding social distancing and quarantining:
If both individuals are wearing masks, close contact is defined as within 3 feet of each other for 15 consecutive minutes.
If one or neither of the individuals are wearing masks, close contact is defined as within 6 feet of each other for 15 consecutive minutes.
Vaccinated individuals who come into close contact with others are not required to quarantine if they are not exhibiting symptoms.
New testing policies are forthcoming as well. Students can continue coming to school "in limited circumstances" after being exposed to COVID-19 "while at school" if they receive a negative rapid test every day, which will be administered on campus, and are masked throughout the entirety of the "test-to-stay" period, school officials said.
However, they will only be allowed to return to the classroom – no sports or extracurricular activities.
Lang and Tedesco said "the archdiocese has empowered individual school leaders to determine if and when a return to required masking should be implemented in their respective schools.”
Assumption's mask policy will be evaluated every Friday using in-school and countywide coronavirus data as well as the school's attendance numbers.
Archdiocese COVID-19 protocols say that high schools should require masks when there is a weekly absence rate of over 20% due to a coronavirus case. A county incidence rate of 50 cases per 100,000 people may also prompt required masking, according to St. Xavier’s statement.
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In a statement to The Courier Journal, archdiocesan spokeswoman Cecelia Price said "some Catholic high schools are announcing a mask-optional protocol in the coming weeks."
However, a decision about masking policies in elementary schools has not been made yet by Superintendent of Schools Mary Beth Bowling, Price said.
Contact Ayana Archie at aarchie@courier-journal.com or follow on Twitter @AyanaArchie. Support strong local journalism by subscribing to The Courier Journal.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Several Louisville Catholic high schools are making masks optional
