443 kids don’t have to wear masks in Johnson County district that lets parents decide
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COVID-19 safety in schools
For the new school year, as COVID-19 cases are surging and hospitals are turning away patients, Kansas City area districts are making decisions about safety.
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Last school year, only nine students were granted medical exemptions to the Spring Hill school district’s mask mandate.
But this year, officials allowed parents and guardians to request mask exemptions, without approval from a doctor. And now, 443 students don’t have to wear masks.
That’s nearly 17% of the more than 2,600 students in Spring Hill elementary and middle schools, where masks are required, per an order from Johnson County. The mandate doesn’t extend to high schools. But allowing parents to exempt their younger children from the mandate has essentially made masks optional districtwide.
In two elementary schools, more than 20% of students have exemptions. At Wolf Creek Elementary School, nearly 22% of students won’t be wearing masks. And in first grade, that jumps to more than 36%.
Spring Hill now has the loosest COVID-19 protocols out of all of the public districts in Johnson County. All other districts have mandated masks for all grade levels, going beyond the county’s rule.
The Gardner-Edgerton district was the latest. On Monday the school board decided to expand its mask mandate to high schoolers, after the district reported roughly 50 COVID-19 cases and 200 quarantines within the first week of classes.
Other districts in the Kansas City area have also implemented mask mandates after seeing cases and quarantines spike within the first days of school. The Turner district, in Kansas City, Kansas, and Raymore-Peculiar in Cass County both began the school year without mask rules, but then quickly added mandates for all grade levels.
Health officials have warned that with the delta variant driving up new COVID-19 cases, sending students to school without masks will lead to mass quarantines and possible school closures. Children under the age of 12 are not yet eligible for the vaccine.
And local pediatric groups are telling patients they will not write exemptions outside of what would be medically necessary — and those exemptions are rare.
At Monday night’s meeting, the Spring Hill school board approved a resolution affirming the decision to allow parents to sign mask exemption forms.
At the meeting, several parents and physicians pleaded with the district to require verification from a health care provider, such as a medical doctor, nurse practitioner or psychologist, before approving exemptions.
“Leaving this decision to someone who doesn’t have an obligation to consider public health, like a doctor would, is risky because some parents can and will choose the easiest option for their family. ... That’s distorting the system,” said parent Heather Hardman. “It invites more COVID. It’s the farthest thing from protecting our community.”
Others fought against mask mandates, arguing that it was an issue of personal freedom rather than public health.
The majority of the Spring Hill board has stuck firm in wanting parents to decide about masks, which experts agree help prevent the spread of the virus. Health officials emphasize that masks, hand washing, social distancing, testing and symptom monitoring will help keep schools operating this year.
Also on Monday, board member Jason Winbolt said he would like the school board to send a letter of complaint to the Johnson County Board of Commissioners, arguing that it overstepped its authority in mandating masks in some schools. The board agreed to take up the issue at its meeting on Sept. 13.
Johnson County issued a health order requiring masks in private and public schools that serve students as old as sixth grade.
The tension comes as major revisions to Kansas emergency management law are challenged in court. Last month, a Johnson County judge ruled Senate Bill 40, which limits health officials’ emergency powers, unconstitutional. But those limits will now remain in place while the state Supreme Court considers an appeal, after a stay was granted Tuesday.
The ruling also restores a procedure that allows individuals “aggrieved” by a public health order to file a complaint in district court.
School districts are not subject to those complaints, for now, but local government actions, such as Johnson County’s mask mandate for schools, are.
Johnson County’s order comes with exemptions for people with medical or mental health conditions or disabilities that prevent wearing a face covering, as well as for people communicating with a person who is deaf or hard of hearing and people engaging in religious activities.
The county also left enforcement of the order up to each school district.
In a previous email to The Star, county officials said, “Our order assigns responsibility for documentation of exemptions to schools and their guidelines. Spring Hill has modified their guidelines to allow parents to approve exemptions.”
Includes reporting by The Star’s Katie Bernard.
This story was originally published August 24, 2021 at 5:30 PM.
