A week after anti-mask protest, Johnston votes to continue requiring masks in schools

Johnston County students and teachers must continue to wear face masks in school, despite a protest led by U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn last week to make the coverings optional.

The Johnston County school board voted 4-3 on Monday to continue its face mask requirement for at least another month. Board members agreed to create a group, consisting of both members who support and oppose requiring masks, to discuss the metrics for lifting the requirement.

The vote came after a closed-session discussion that lasted for 10 minutes.

The board had initially planned to vote last Tuesday, the same day Cawthorn and hundreds of protesters demonstrated outside the board meeting in Smithfield. But the vote was delayed a week due to the absence of board vice chairwoman Terri Sessoms, whose husband recently died.

The vote comes at a time when nearly all of North Carolina’s 115 school districts are still requiring masks in the face of rising number COVID-19 numbers from the delta variant. But some districts, such as Harnett County and Lincoln County, voted last week to end their mask requirements.

Johnston was among at least 10 school boards holding meetings on Monday. They’re holding their monthly vote on masking rules that’s now required under a new state law.

Opponents of requiring face masks thought they could flip Johnston County because the board had only voted 4-3 last month to mandate the coverings. Previously, the board had voted 4-3 in late July to make masks optional.

Less quarantining needed if masked

The difference between July and August was that board member Lyn Andrews flipped her vote. Andrews had said at the August meeting that she was changing her vote because state health guidelines have relaxed quarantine rules for districts that require masks.

On Monday, Johnston County’s COVID dashboard showed 144 active positive cases and 689 active quarantines among students and 17 active cases and 52 active quarantines among school employees.

Johnston is the state’s seventh-largest school district, with more than 37,000 students. In contrast, the Union County school system, which has 40,000 students, had more than 7,000 students quarantined last week.

The difference in the numbers is that Union County is subject to stricter state rules on quarantines because it’s not requiring masks.

The Union County school board voted last week to end most quarantine requirements. But after Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Services, threatened legal action, the school board voted Monday to modify the quarantine rules.

Speakers debate mask requirement

Last week’s Johnston County school board meeting saw heated comments both at the outdoor rally and during the meeting.

Cawthorn, a Hendersonville Republican, traveled more than 300 miles from his Western North Carolina congressional district to urge Johnston County leaders to stand up for “freedom.” He urged the district to make masks optional and to end contract tracing and quarantine requirements.

“Let us declare in one loud voice that we will no longer be bullied by radicals who trample our liberties in the name of safety,” Cawthorn told the board.

But other speakers urged the district to continue to require face masks.

“I don’t love wearing a mask,” said April Lee, a classroom teacher and president of the Johnston County Association of Educators, told the board. “I don’t love teaching while wearing a mask. But I understand for now, this is what we need to keep our kids in school.”

Dr. Rodney McCaskill, the chief medical officer at Johnston Health, warned the school board last week that things are getting worse in the county’s hospitals. That will spill over into the school system, he said.

McCaskill said there’s been a tenfold increase in the number of patients in the county’s hospitals who are on life support. He said hospital beds are so full that hospitals have stopped elective surgeries that require an overnight stay.