A school district in Illinois this week rescinded a policy that made mask-wearing optional, just three days after it was initially adopted as part of an updated COVID-19 safety plan.
Rockridge CUSD (Community Unit School District) #300 Board of Education approved the change to allow masks to be optional on December 13, but reportedly overturned that decision at an emergency meeting on December 16.
On Saturday morning, the district’s website prominently states that all students, staff and visitors will be required to wear face masks indoors during the school year 2021/2022.
It was not immediately clear why the school board made the rapid change in policy.. Newsweek has contacted the school district for comment.
On December 13, Rockridge Board of Education voted to make mask-wearing optional for students and staff beginning on January 6, 2021, when classes are set to resume.
The amended plan passed by a vote of 3-2. Not all the members of the school board were present.
Previous COVID safety rules had required mask-wearing at the district’s five schools, but an updated plan was published that outlined the policy on masks at five “mitigation levels.”
At the first four of those mitigation levels, masks remained optional while at the fifth and final mitigation level, the plan called for a special meeting of the board of education.
School board president Nathan Faith supported the mask-optional policy, and previously pointed to high infection rates in jurisdictions with strict mask requirements.
“New York, high transmission. Germany, high transmission. Every single one of them has transmission. You’re not slowing the spread with a mask,” Faith said.
However, after the mask-optional policy was adopted, an emergency meeting of the school board was called for December 16. A brief agenda, available online, listed just one action item: a motion to rescind the December 13 amended reopening plan.
Illinois’ WRMJ Radio reported that the school board voted in favor of rescinding the mask-optional policy with four members voting to rescind it, while Faith joined two other members in abstaining.
Visitors to the Rockbridge School District’s website are now met with a link to the agenda of the December 16 meeting and the message: “The Rockridge CUSD #300 will be requiring a face mask to be worn by all staff, students, and visitors while indoors to begin the 2021-2022 school year. The face mask requirement is in place at all times while indoors, including backpack nights, orientations and extracurricular events.”
WQAD8 reported on Friday that the decision may have been motivated by athletics. One unnamed school board member told the TV station there was a threat that students would not be able to compete at conferences.
Illinois’ Rock Island County, where Rockbridge district is located, reported 266 new COVID cases and five deaths on Friday, with Rock Island County Health Department noting a recent “huge surge in cases and hospitalizations.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently recommend masking in schools for all children aged two years and above.
But mask-wearing and mask-mandates have often been at the center of controversial school board meetings across the country in recent times.
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