Masks remain optional at Greater Latrobe after elementary mandate fails by slim margin

When Greater Latrobe parents send their elementary students back to the classroom beginning Monday, they will have the option of deciding whether their children should wear a mask upon entering their school building.

The school board this week was just one vote away from amending its July 27 mask-optional policy, which applies to all grade levels, to instead mandate masks for grades K-6.

Board member William Palmer joined three opponents of the original mask-optional plan — Dr. Michael Zorch, Heidi Kozar and Cathy Sarraf — in voting for the elementary mask mandate.

But the motion to amend the district health and safety plan failed to gain the needed five-vote majority to pass.

School board President Eric Hauser opposed the amendment, as did Susan Mains, Dr. Rhonda Laughlin and Merle Musick. Paul McCommons, for unspecified reasons, abstained.

Zorch, a retired emergency room physician who chairs the school board’s health and safety committee, said the district’s mask-optional plan flies in the face of advice from local physicians who have urged Greater Latrobe to require masks in its schools.

He viewed the proposed elementary mask requirement as the next best option, short of a K-12 mandate, to help protect students, district staff and their families from the more contagious delta strain of covid-19.

“The kids in K-6 don’t have the opportunity to be vaccinated,” he noted. “”They’re at the greatest risk.

“I want our students to be in school. I want our students to be safe. I don’t want kids to be quarantined.”

Sarraf expressed concern that Greater Latrobe is risking a situation similar to what has occurred at a number of other districts around the country, where covid cases have mounted, forcing schools to close soon after beginning the academic year.

“Let’s start with masks for the time being,” she suggested. “It’s easy enough to remove the masks later,” once pandemic conditions improve.

Palmer said he has no confidence in covid guidance issued by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But, he said he does trust the recommendations of local physicians and voted accordingly to amend the district’s mask policy.

Laughlin, a local optometrist, objected that “kids feel more anonymous with the mask. There is a mental health component, there is a social and emotional component.”

She argued that children are being unduly burdened, through mask-wearing, with the impression that they are responsible for the health of all those around them.

As on the school board, opposing views about wearing masks were evident among the more than 75 people who attended the board meeting.

Several of the speakers cited studies supporting either the efficacy or the limitations of masks in abating the spread of covid-19. Mains said she doesn’t believe there has been enough time to complete valid peer-reviewed research on mask use in relation to covid.

Some parents said they believe the district would be overstepping its authority if it were to require students to wear masks, which they said should be classified as medical devices.

“We don’t need a board telling us as parents what is best for our children,” said Monica Green.

Several Greater Latrobe students told the board that mask requirements and other district covid protocols in place last school year had a detrimental effect on them. Complaints about mask use included breathing problems and headaches.

Sophomore Sarah Lavetsky said she knows students who stayed home to avoid wearing masks. She added that the masks created barriers for students in interacting with each other and learning lessons.

“Students are struggling without visual cues and without their teachers being able to tell that they are struggling,” she said.

Gena David, mother of two district children and a registered nurse at Excela Westmoreland Hospital, expressed concern about a recent rise in the number of covid cases she’s witnessed. She spoke in favor of the proposed amendment to require masks at elementary schools.

Over a period of about five weeks, she said, the portion of patients in her hospital unit who were positive covid-19 cases increased from about 20% to 56%.

“That tells me that the numbers are creeping up,” she said of new covid infections. “It’s coming closer to home.”

Hauser expressed frustration that federal and state officials aren’t providing local districts the same clear guidance they did last year for establishing covid health and safety plans.

“This is a balance between education and health,” he said. “That is a decision we never had to make before.”

He said the district will change its health and safety plan, as needed, to address evolving pandemic situations.

“We will do what is best for our kids,” he said.

School begins Monday for Greater Latrobe students in grades 1-7 and 9; Tuesday for grades 8 and 10-12; Wednesday for kindergarten students.