During Wednesday’s Rotary Club meeting, State Secretary of Education Ryan Walters addressed concerns by local citizens regarding the COVID-19 delta variant and the law banning local school districts from creating mask mandates.
Senate Bill 658, which was signed into law May 28 and went into effect July 1, does not allow public schools and institutions of higher education to require COVID-19 vaccines. It also doesn’t allow local school district to create mask mandates without the following criteria:
• The jurisdiction has an emergency declaration issued by the governor
• The district has consulted with local health officials
• The schools board gives lays out its reasoning for the mask mandate
• The school board votes on the mask mandate during every meeting
With the 2021-22 school year fast approaching, some parents – and grandparents – are expressing concern about their children returning to school. The delta variant spreads more easily, especially among children, compared to the original virus and can be passed from person to person much quicker.
Recently, Weatherford, along with the state of Oklahoma, has experienced a recent spike of the COVID-19 and the variant although the situation has been more contained than in other neighboring states.
As of Wednesday, the Oklahoma State Department of Health reported Weatherford has 25 confirmed cases of COVID-19, a little more than triple from the previous week. Similarly, Clinton has 28 confirmed cases.
With all of this in mind, one local resident asked Secretary Walters what he and the Oklahoma Department of Education plans to do about the situation.
“We currently are looking at ‘What are the numbers? What is the data telling us? What are the potential strategies moving forward?’” Walters said. “
Walters also said they are in constant contact with the health department and his job is to make sure the appropriate decisions are made for schools and school personnel.
The same resident said, “I have two granddaughters who have respiratory issues on a regular basis. School starts next week and mask mandates are not allowed unless there is an emergency provision. So how do their parents decide whether or not to risk their exposure to COVID-19 when there will be kids who do are not wearing masks and cannot be made to wear masks?”
Walters said parents have the option exercise individual mitigation strategies with their child.
The resident said that is only a small fraction of the issue when their granddaughters will be surrounded by other children who will not be wearing a mask.
“If they are around children who aren’t wearing masks, the parents will have to make the decision about what environment they should put them in,” Walters said referring the parents’ choice between in-person and online schooling. “Most schools have virtual options and we have virtual options across the state as well.”
Walters emphasized the law was passed to give parents the choice regarding which precautions their family would follow.
The resident said thier granddaughters have done school online for the last year due to their respiratory issues and by not allowing the local school district to issue their own mask mandates, it limited their choices.