Soaring COVID cases lead schools to reconsider masks for students

A new federal recommendation on mask wearing could lead school districts to reconsider whether students can go mask-free in the new school year, a move that would infuriate parents who have castigated school officials in recent weeks.

The Broward School Board had planned Tuesday to consider a recommendation from Superintendent Robert Runcie to make masks optional in the coming year. But then the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that even vaccinated people wear masks indoors in areas like Florida where COVID-19 is surging.

The CDC said all students, teachers and staff should wear masks in schools even if they’ve been vaccinated.

The recommendation effectively put schools at the center of a continuing divide over masks across America. About 25 mask opponents disrupted the Broward School Board meeting after staging a mask burning outside.

Palm Beach County and Miami-Dade schools both planned to make masks optional in the new school year, but Miami-Dade now will reconsider the issue, a spokesperson said.

Palm Beach County, where School Board meetings have stretched for hours due to complaints from mask opponents, isn’t likely to change its plans and make them mandatory, School Board member Erica Whitfield said.

But at least two Broward School Board members are willing to consider mandatory masks when the board meets again Wednesday to consider the issue.

“Two weeks ago I would have been all for them being optional,” said board member Debbi Hixon. “But in light of the numbers increasing, I think it’s way safer for us to start with masks being mandatory and as we move into the school year see how the numbers go. But if you start optional and three weeks later, the numbers aren’t getting better and you make it mandatory, that’s not going to work.”

Board member Sarah Leonardi also supports mandatory masks. Several other board members said they want to review the CDC’s new guidance and hear from district staff and other board members Wednesday.

Any school district that requires masks is liable to draw the ire of Gov. Ron DeSantis, who insists that masks should be optional and that there’s no scientific evidence they’re necessary.

DeSantis held a secret meeting in the Capitol on Monday with medical professionals to bolter his argument, and he has threatened to call a special session of the Legislature to outlaw mask mandates.

Several medical experts took issue with DeSantis’ position.

“To say that masks don’t work is disingenuous,” said Dr. Danny Benjamin, a professor of pediatrics at Duke University who helped lead a study of face masks and COVID-19 in North Carolina schools. “Masks work. That has been established. Full stop.”

Dr. Michael Muszynski, who founded the pediatric infectious disease division at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando, said masks are especially valuable in schools, especially among students who are too young to be vaccinated.

“Why would we take off masks? What is the good medical rational for that? There is none,” he said.

Masks opponents who descended on the Broward School Board meeting would disagree. They created an unruly scene inside the lobby of the K.C. Wright administrative building where the board was meeting.

The crowd refused to wear masks themselves, despite security asking them several times.

“There was a roomful of people who would not leave, and it escalated and it sounded like a riot was going on,” said Hixon, who was inside the boardroom attending a closed-door session. “With the new guidance coming from the CDC, it made sense to put it off until tomorrow when we could better control who come in and make sure they have masks on and also use the new CDC guidance as a direction for the conversation.”

Anyone attending the meeting Wednesday will have to wear a mask and keep it on while in the building, School Board Chairwoman Rosalind Osgood said.

The decision to delay the meeting angered parents and activists, who argued that they took off work to come to the meeting.

“It’s outrageous. It’s absurd,” said Barbara Brogas, of Deerfield Beach, who came with her 6-year-old daughter Athena. “They knew we were here to speak up for our rights.”

Osgood wouldn’t speculate how the governor’s stance on masks would affect decisions in her district.

“I’ll have to hear the guidelines from the CDC, and the board will collectively make a decision as to how we will reopen school as it relates to masks,” Osgood said Tuesday before the specific guidance came out.

Miami-Dade County said it was prudent to reconsider its policy in light of the new CDC guidance.

““This is an important decision that cannot be rushed and must continue to be evaluated based on the scientific information available,” Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said.

Miami-Dade starts the new school year Aug. 23, which is later than most districts, “and we will use this later start date to our advantage as we continue to make decisions that prioritize the health of our students and employees,” Carvalho said.

Palm Beach County School Board members said last week that they don’t think DeSantis would allow them to make masks mandatory. They also have spent hours listening to anti-mask speakers at recent meetings. They made it clear last week that masks would remain optional, and Whitfield said she doesn’t see that changing.

“The only difference for me is I’m considering the idea we would encourage people to wear masks due to the numbers,” she said. “I honestly don’t think we can mandate. I don’t think it would work in this state.”

Orlando Sentinel staff writers Gray Rohrer and Leslie Postal contributed to this report.