Students will return to their Greater Lansing classrooms this fall, but some will be required to continue wearing their masks.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on July 9 released new guidance for schools, recommending they require all students over age 2 who have not received COVID-19 vaccinations to wear masks in school as a means to prevent spread of the disease. Mid-Michigan school districts continue to review the new guidance. Some plan to follow the guidance, some will make masks optional and others have not yet finalized policies.
Charlotte Public Schools, Grand Ledge Public Schools, Mason Public Schools and Eaton Rapids Public Schools are among the districts that will not make masks mandatory for students and staff.
Mask requirements will be in place for at least the younger elementary students in Lansing School District. Children under 12 currently cannot receive the COVID-19 vaccination.
“Certainly at this moment masks will be required for younger children who can not be vaccinated,” said Robert Kolt, Lansing School District spokesperson. “We are working on a complete, detailed and robust response plan for all other students.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics went beyond the CDC guidance and recommends that all staff and students older than 2 wear masks in school, regardless of their vaccination status.
School mask mandates have already drawn opposition in Michigan and a lawsuit could potentially alter the ability of schools to implement mask requirements.
Resurrection School — a Catholic elementary school near downtown Lansing — filed a lawsuit in October arguing that mandates requiring students to wear masks in classrooms require the school and families to “either violate their sincerely held religious beliefs or face criminal prosecution.”
Arguments in the case were heard Wednesday in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“In accordance with the teachings of the Catholic faith, Resurrection School believes that every human has dignity and is made in God’s image and likeness,” according to the complaint. “Unfortunately, a mask shields our humanity. And because God created us in His image, we are masking that image.”
In a July 13 communication to families, Charlotte Public Schools Superintendent Mandy Stewart said there will be no mask requirements as the local “risk level of contagion” is low.
Like most schools, the lack of a mask mandate at Charlotte Public Schools could change.
“It is important to note, should we see increases in community transmission or there is an outbreak, we may need to review the mask requirement,” Stewart wrote. “For example, if there is a school outbreak or the local data becomes high, we would review the possibility of temporarily requiring masks, as an alternative to closing the building down or shifting to virtual programming.”
Officials from several Lansing-area school districts could not be reached to confirm whether mask requirements would be implemented. Some school districts have yet to make a decision. Waverly Community Schools and DeWitt Public Schools both plan to announce a decision in early August.
St. Johns Public Schools Superintendent Mark Palmer expects his Board of Education to approve plans in August as well, but the district has not yet made any commitments as to what going to school will look like in terms of masks this fall. Since June 22, the school district has operated academic and athletic summer programs free of any COVID-19 protocols, he said.
“I am optimistic that school will be normal when we begin at the end of August,” Palmer said, in an email. “However, if there is anything I have learned over the past year, it is that the requirements for what we must do can change instantly.”
Contact Mark Johnson at 517-377-1026 or at majohnson2@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ByMarkJohnson.
