Plano ISD’s decision to not extend the district’s temporary mask mandate has drawn strong reactions from parents on both sides of the issue, who say it boils down to personal freedom vs. safety.
Parents flooded social media, including the board members’ Facebook pages, with comments in support of and against the trustees’ vote to end the mask requirement starting next week.
A post on board member Cody Weaver’s page about Black Rifle Coffee opening a Plano location turned into a back-and-forth between him and people who are angry about his vote to reject the extension.
“You are an utter disgrace and a fraud,” wrote parent Katy Agruso, who has two children in Plano ISD, ages 15 and 11. “I cannot wait to vote you, Angela, Heather and David out of office. You have failed our children.”
Board president David Stolle, Angela Powell, Heather Wang and Weaver voted against the extension. Lauren Tyra, Jeri Chambers and Nancy Humphrey voted in favor of it.
Trustees implemented the mandate Aug. 23 to address a surge of COVID-19 cases in Collin County, which now appears to be over, Stolle said during Tuesday’s meeting.
Weaver also said he doesn’t think that a mask mandate is responsible for cases of COVID-19 going down, as they have in the district.
“I am not arguing the efficacy of masks,” he responded to one commenter on his post. “We voted on whether or not to renew a mask mandate for k-12 students. There is no data to support mask mandates for kids in school.”
Many commenters thanked Weaver, saying he protected their freedom and stood up for common sense, personal choice and parental rights.
April Hoffmann said her family moved to Plano last year partly to get away from closures and mask mandates in California.
Last school year, her four kids struggled to wear masks throughout the school day, she said.
“It was really hard,” she said. “They cried and hated school last year.”
But as restrictions in Texas ramped up, her kids found themselves in a similar situation.
“I was surprised that in Plano, there’s a lot of fear around COVID and pressure to wear masks and follow all CDC suggestions and guidelines,” Hoffmann said. “I had a different impression of Texas. It must depend on what county you’re in.”
Tyra, a trustee who voted to extend the mandate, said the district should follow recommendations by American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, both of which have recommended indoor masking for students ages 2 and older.
Hoffmann also said she is concerned that masks have an impact on learning because they make it difficult to hear someone talking.
“When kids are learning to read and sound out words, that makes it difficult,” she said.
Before Tuesday’s vote, Plano ISD offered parents the chance to let their kids opt out of wearing masks. Students who were granted exemptions represented about 8% of the district’s 50,000 students.
That indicates most parents agree with the mask mandate, said Angela Wagner, who decided during the last school year that her 5- and 7-year-old children would take advantage of Plano ISD’s virtual learning option.
She said she has been “deeply disappointed” in the lack of safety protocols she has seen on her children’s campuses since they returned this year.
“It’s really shocking to see,” Wagner said. “Elementary school children can’t be vaccinated, and there is pretty much no social distancing.”
Parent Carmen Campbell said
she had every intention of sending her 8-year-old son, who is participating in a Moderna vaccine trial for younger kids, back to campus. But the family decided against it as COVID cases began rising again and the delta variant began affecting children.
Doing away with masks was a premature decision, she said, citing the lack of pediatric ICU beds in North Texas.
“Schools are a huge pocket of unvaccinated individuals, and they’re unprotected,” Campbell said. “It’s a wonderful setup for spread, and they need to be masking.”
