Masks to be optional in Lawrence schools Jan. 3
By TONY FYFFE
BSN Editor
LOUISA — Come January, wearing masks will be optional in the Lawrence County School District, but the change could come sooner if COVID-19 case numbers drop significantly.
The Lawrence County school board, during its regular meeting Monday, approved amendments to the district’s “Safe Return to In-Person Instruction and Continuity of Services Plan,” including a change to the district’s masking requirement.
Currently, wearing masks inside the school district’s buildings is mandatory, but the amendment gives students, school personnel and visitors the option of masking up.
The change will take effect Jan. 3, 2022, after the Christmas/New Year’s holiday break. Wearing masks on school buses would remain mandatory until the federal requirement is lifted.
“We’re going to have a load of students, we have several students that are virtual now, that will probably want to come back to school once the masks are lifted, so we’re going to have to talk about how we handle that,” Superintendent Dr. Robbie Fletcher told board members Monday.
Fletcher said students who are taught virtually “don’t go at the same pace” as students who are taught in person.
Fletcher said the January date to make masks optional was chosen in order to give parents the opportunity to vaccinate their children before the change takes place.
“No matter which way you fall on this, everybody has had the option to vaccinate at that point, so it should be a choice, in my opinion, at that point, it should be a choice of whether or not to mask,” Fletcher said. “Now, I don’t know what’s going to happen between now and then. We may have a huge spike and may have to change that recommendation. I don’t know, but right now that would be my recommendation to the board.”
Board chairman Heath Preston said that although the date to make masking optional is Jan. 3, the board has the right “within 48 hours to change it.”
Board members approved the Jan. 3 date and also said that the masking option could begin sooner if the county can stay in the orange zone on the state’s COVID-19 incidence map for seven consecutive days and if the number of students who test positive in the district is less than .5 percent for seven straight days.
Lawrence County remained in the red on Monday with an incidence rate of 32.5.
Prior to the board’s action on the issue, parent Rita Yates asked board members to “free our children’s smiles” by lifting the mask requirement.
“Please, please unmask our children,” Yates said.