Following this month’s state Supreme Court ruling striking down Pennsylvania’s school mask mandate, Mark Holtzman, McKeesport Area School District superintendent, announced that students and staff will no longer be required to wear masks in district schools. He believes this ruling is good for the district, because it gives parents the power to decide if their children will wear masks at school.
Holtzman ignores the fact that a “masks optional” policy may expose students, teachers and staff, and their family members, to covid-19. As Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, said in August, “Forbidding schools from implementing this basic public health measure (wearing masks) threatens the safety of our schools. Schools need to be able to help ensure the safety of all students, educators and their families.”
While cases of covid and its variants continue to climb, overwhelming our hospital systems, Holtzman should not allow one group of parents to dictate school policy for all students and staff.
Rebecca Weiss
White Oak