Read: Senate President Karen Spilka urges Baker administration to require masks in schools this fall

Senate President Karen Spilka is joining the list of state lawmakers pushing for Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration to require masks in schools this fall.

State education officials last week released COVID-19 mask guidance for districts and schools, “strongly” recommending the use of face coverings by unvaccinated students, staff, and educators when indoors. But the officials stopped short of requiring masks inside school buildings for the approaching academic year.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance for schools last week, recommending that all students aged 2 and older, staff, teachers, and visitors to schools wear masks indoors, regardless of an individual’s vaccination status, out of concern for the “circulating and highly contagious Delta variant.” Previously, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a recommendation in July that everyone over the age of 2, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks in schools for the fall school year.

In her statement calling for a mask requirement, Spilka said that with the circulation of the contagious Delta variant and an uptick in COVID-19 cases, the state is “not quite ready to return to our pre-pandemic ‘normal.’”

“No one wants to go back to the dark early days of this public health crisis, and so we must do everything possible to keep people safe and our economy stable,” she wrote. “Wearing a mask around vulnerable populations, including unvaccinated children and others, is a small and simple action we can take to do this.”

Read the full statement released by Spilka below:

Next month, almost a million children will return to Massachusetts K-12 public schools. Of these kids, nearly half will be under 12 years old and therefore ineligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine before returning to the classroom. 

Throughout the spring and summer, I joined parents and teachers in the hope that our children could return to school with a sense of normalcy. With the rise of the highly contagious Delta variant, however, the situation is clear: COVID-19 case counts are rising. The number of deaths is once again rising, including among those who have been vaccinated. This means that we are not quite ready to return to our pre-pandemic ‘normal.’ 

Public health experts and the American Academy of Pediatrics agree that universal masking in schools is an effective way to keep our vulnerable children and residents safe as we continue to fight this global pandemic. Parents, school staff and students seek clear, consistent direction as the school year starts, and they deserve to get it from the state. That’s why I am calling on the Baker Administration to require masks in school this fall. 

No one wants to go back to the dark early days of this public health crisis, and so we must do everything possible to keep people safe and our economy stable. Wearing a mask around vulnerable populations, including unvaccinated children and others, is a small and simple action we can take to do this.  

Our children deserve to learn, grow and thrive in a safe and healthy environment, free from the disruption, anxiety and fear of a COVID-19 outbreak in their school. Massachusetts residents have shown such amazing compassion, caring and resilience throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. We need to keep going until our youngest and most vulnerable can be vaccinated.