Bucks County Schools Should Require Masks: Sen. Santarsiero

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — Amid increasingly intense debates in Bucks County over schools’ mask requirements, Democratic State Sen. Steve Santarsiero is urging districts to require all students, staff and visitors to wear face coverings inside.

The state senator recently sent letters to six school districts that he represents — Council Rock, Central Bucks, New Hope-Solebury, Pennridge, Pennsbury and Morrisville — asking them to adopt masking requirements for the start of the 2021-22 school year after Bucks County was recently rated as having a high level of community transmission of the coronavirus.

“The goal we all share is for students and faculty to have a productive and safe in-person school year,” Santarsiero wrote in the letter. “Requiring masks at this time will help achieve that goal.”

As recently as last week, all Bucks County school districts were planning to start the 2021-22 school year with mask-optional policies, which were supported by the Bucks County Health Department despite differing guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The New Hope-Solebury and Pennsbury school boards are set to consider mandatory masking policies at their meetings Thursday night. The Council Rock School District has scheduled a special meeting next week to review its mask-optional policy after new guidance from the Bucks County Health Department urged districts to adopt mask mandates.

Bucks County health officials changed their recommendations Tuesday after local hospital representatives voiced concerns about their "limited ability to treat severe pediatric cases of any type."

With children under the age of 12 still not eligible to receive a vaccine, “our students remain vulnerable to COVID-19,” Santarsiero wrote.

“Hopefully in the near future we will get to a point where more people are vaccinated and the spread of the virus and variants is slowed,” Santarsiero wrote. “Until then, it is most prudent that we continue to use the mitigation efforts we have seen work against this virus, so that our schools can remain open and our students and teachers can benefit from in-person learning.”