Vestavia Parents Urge Board of Education To Mandate Masks

VESTAVIA HILLS, AL — As one of the few school systems in the Birmingham metro that is not mandating the wearing of masks amid the recent spike in COVID-19 cases, Vestavia Hills City Schools is receiving some push-back from hundreds of local parents.

A recent letter was sent to the Vestavia Hills Board of Education by parents of children in the school system, urging the board to reconsider its stance on masks.

“The Vestavia Hills Board of Education, unlike the Boards of Education for the surrounding cities of Birmingham, Homewood, Hoover, Mountain Brook, and Trussville, has instituted a mask optional policy, without soliciting public input, as part of its 2021-22 Health and Wellness Plan,” the group states in this rebuttal letter. “[The Board] asserts masks negatively impact speech and academic learning, yet the Board – which presumably has access to its own grade- and school-level data, including historical performances – provides no statistics whatsoever supporting these contentions; References easily discredited, often foreign authorities, such as studies prepared by a political think tank, another offered by a Maryland physician who asserted wide-spread herd immunity would be present five months ago, and a German study of a questionable nature; Does not even try to address the more infectious nature of the Delta variant; and indicates physicians were consulted, but glaringly does not name a single doctor who endorses in the Plan.”

Related: Mask Mandates In Schools: Parents Push Back

Vestavia Hills City Schools reported that as of August 20, 104 students were at home because of a reported COVID-19 positive diagnosis and 258 students were at home because of a known close contact exposure. VHCS had 39 staff members absent for reasons related to COVID-19 as well.