Q&A: COVID-19 mask mandate

By Declan Fee,

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

Davis Joint Unified School District recently announced that on April 11, face coverings will no longer be required indoors at school. Blue Devil HUB reporter Declan Fee spoke with interim Superintendent Matt Best to clarify questions from the Davis High student body.

What was the driving motivation behind the removal of the mask mandate?

Best: Part one is that the state and federal governments are rolling back their requirements for masks and I think they’re doing that for a couple of reasons. One, I think that they’re seeing declining infection rates across the state, country and definitely here in YOLO county. We are also seeing increased vaccination rates, and overall we’ve learned a lot about masking and its effectiveness. I think there is a big shift in public health policy … When we first started the pandemic the whole philosophy was wear a mask to protect yourself and others. That philosophy is shifting to now that each individual needs to assess their own risk for contracting the disease, and the risk in their household … and decide whether they need to wear a mask themselves. Wearing masks, and all these restrictions on our lives have had an effect on our ability to function well and our well-being.

How does the district plan on accommodating immunocompromised students or students with at-risk loved ones?

Best: Any accommodations for the in-person learning environment will mostly be focused on making sure that student has a high-quality, well-fitting mask, which studies have shown provides a high degree of protection … But in terms of how we manage that at a district, our stance is that our main accommodation is to wear your mask, and students also have the opportunity to do the virtual academy if they don’t feel comfortable with that risk.

Why did the board choose to wait until April 11, not earlier like many other school districts?

Best: (The board) knows that the community is divided. We are seeing it all across the country, some folks want to continue with the indoor masking requirement … and many that would prefer that we lift it. That is the difficult part for our governing board to grapple with because they … are trying to find a consensus in the community and amongst them. Another big consideration is … what staff are feeling. Some things that staff are worried about is having a big infection surge after spring break. We’ve learned from all the breaks over the past couple years that we generally see an uptick after breaks … We have learned that we need to give staff some time to see what this will all mean for their class room. We need to give staff and students time to make their own health related decisions. We know that in every transition we’ve made … that people change their circumstance and are not willing to accept the risk of the next thing. As people stop wearing their masks we know that some students and staff will decide not to continue in person, and we need to give them time to figure that out.

If COVID-19 cases start to rise again after April 11, will the district reinstitute the mask mandate?

Best: I don’t want to speculate but there are a couple things that could happen. The state could reinstitute a mask mandate, or the county, the public health officer and the board could also. I think that it is probably unlikely at this point, given the shift in public health policy towards individual choice and action. Our board certainly discussed whether that was a possibility and we are certainly interested in seeing what happens after spring break, but unless there is some new crazy variant, I don’t think we are going to see the same sort of infection rates that we saw over winter break.