Lee’s Summit school board reinstates mask mandate amid COVID-19 surge
The Lee’s Summit School board voted Thursday evening to reinstate the district’s mask requirement inside all public school facilities for the next four weeks as COVID-19 cases around the Kansas City metro continue to surge.
Board members voted 6-1 in favor of the measure, which takes effect Friday. Its passage followed an hourlong debate over the efficacy of masks, ways to keep schools open and the toll on staff and students caused by a pandemic well into its second year.
Superintendent David Buck told board members that the district, mere days after the return from winter break, was seeing a heightened caseload of students and teachers out of school for COVID-19 related reasons.
“It is a unique surge right now in our community,” the superintendent said.
Some board members were on the fence. Among them was School Board President Ryan Murdock, who supported the policy, though he openly questioned how much effect mask wearing would have when students and teachers are free to spend the rest of the day without one.
“If we actually wanted to make a dent in this … it would need to be a true regional and universal effort. That is never going to happen,” Murdock said. “I’m sorry if people want it to. I guarantee that is never going to happen.”
“We need to make sure we’re doing other things,” he added. “Because masks on top of nothing — I think we’re not going to see a whole lot of impact here.”
In the face of warring public opinions over the face coverings, several area leaders pointed to the recommendations offered by medical professionals as the guiding principle forming their decisions.
“Our job is to make the best decision as situations evolve,” School Board Vice President Megan Marshall said, adding: “it’s our job to be leaders in our own communities and in areas that we govern, and the communities that we swore to serve.”
In the wake of the latest surge, medical professionals have called upon the public and government leaders to take action as hospital beds again fill with patients sickened with COVID-19. Prime recommendations from them are for increased vaccination efforts — in Kansas City, the vaccinated population remains at around 50% nearly one year after vaccines became widely available — and for people to practice safe social interactions like mask-wearing and social distancing.
The decision in Lee’s Summit resembled others made by area government officials on Thursday.
In Kansas City, an emergency measure to reinstate a mask requirement for K-12 schools — a move Mayor Quinton Lucas, who introduced the measure, called a moderate step toward making Kansas Citians safer. And Johnson County continued its mask mandate in schools up to sixth grade.
