Kids ‘are suffering’: 26 elected officials urge Johnson County to end school mask rule
As many Kansas City area districts report record numbers of new COVID-19 cases, more than two dozen elected officials are urging Johnson County to drop its school mask mandate.
Twenty-six Kansas state legislators, local elected officials and newly elected school board members sent a letter to the Johnson County Board of Commissioners last week, pleading for the board to rescind its mandate by January. Since August, Johnson County has maintained a health order requiring all schools that serve students as old as sixth grade to require masks to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 while vaccination rates among children remain low.
“Our Johnson County children in our school districts are suffering,” the letter states. “We are seeing a greatly increased number of mental health issues, behavioral issues, educational detriment including learning loss and decreased test scores across the county.”
The letter is signed by Republican Kansas state Sen. Kellie Warren, who is running for attorney general, as well as state Sens. Molly Baumgardner, Mike Thompson, Rob Olson and Beverly Gossage, plus state Reps. Adam Thomas, Bill Sutton and others.
Also on the list is state school board member Michelle Dombrosky, Johnson County Sheriff Calvin Hayden, and several local school board and city council members. They include newly elected Blue Valley board members Kaety Bowers and Jim McMullen, as well as Brian Connell and Robert Kuhn in Olathe, who all won seats on the boards last month after campaigning against mask mandates.
“This is really a situation where school districts need to be making those decisions at the school board level, not at the county commission level,” Baumgardner told The Star.
The numbers of new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are surging across the Kansas City metro. And with infection rates rising among children, some schools are reporting their highest weekly case counts since the start of the pandemic.
“A higher level of community transmission and some inadequate adherence to mitigation measures are contributing factors,” Sanmi Areola, Johnson County public health director, said in an email to The Star last week. “…Wearing masks continues to be very important to reach our end goal of keeping schools open and ensuring that school-age children can learn in person in an environment that is safe and healthy.”
Elsewhere in the metro, the Kansas City Council implemented a mask mandate in schools through Jan. 1. And a mask order in Kansas City, Kansas, applies to schools through Jan. 6.
Johnson County’s health order is in effect through May 31, unless it is amended or revoked. Chairman Ed Eilert said the board had already intended on discussing the order at its last commission meeting of the year, on Thursday, and a decision on whether to maintain or end the order could be made in early January.
Eilert said that county infection rates are climbing, and emphasized that the mask mandate only applies to schools that teach younger students, many of whom are yet to be vaccinated because they only became eligible last month. As of Monday, Johnson County data showed that nearly 28% of children ages 5 to 11 have been fully vaccinated.
“With COVID, it seems like every week it can change one way or the other. So we’re trying to be aware of that,” Eilert said. “So we’re encouraging vaccinations, and if there’s better news in the first part of January, then we’ll be in a position to consider a different decision.”
In the letter to the board, the elected officials state that children as young as 5 should have had the chance to get fully immunized by Jan. 1, and that it’s time for masks to become optional.
Earlier this school year, most Johnson County school districts decided to go beyond the county mandate and require masks at all grade levels. But after Thanksgiving break, the Blue Valley and Olathe districts allowed high schoolers to take off their masks.
Gardner Edgerton lifted its mandate for high schoolers last month, and made masks optional for seventh and eighth graders after Thanksgiving.
Now with COVID-19 cases skyrocketing among children, districts are reporting some of their highest weekly case counts.
In Olathe, two high schools already have returned to a mask mandate due to high case counts, said district spokeswoman Rebecca Grubaugh.
The district agreed to bring back a mask mandate temporarily in individual schools if 4% of the building’s population is required to isolate or quarantine, or if the absenteeism rate is 7% or higher. According to the district’s dashboard, two high schools, Olathe Northwest and Olathe West, both meet that criteria.
The Shawnee Mission school board decided to make masks optional in high school and middle schools in early January.
On Monday, Johnson County’s incidence rate — or the number of new cases per 100,000 people over the past week — was 329, up from 170 on Nov. 13.
The Blue Valley district last week reported 111 new coronavirus cases, a record number since the start of the pandemic.
Olathe last week reported 165 new COVID-19 cases among children, down from 184 the week before, when the district reported a record number of cases for this school year.
The Shawnee Mission district reported 107 student cases last week, down from 160 the previous week, which was a record for this school year.
This story was originally published December 13, 2021 at 2:02 PM.
