Lower Moreland Amends Health & Safety Plan With Regard To Masks

LOWER MORELAND, PA — Before the business agenda of this week’s Lower Moreland School Board meeting ever even got underway, numerous parents took to the podium with public comments, with many urging the school directors to reject the administration’s draft health and safety plan until it was revised to include universal mask-wearing for students and staff in 2021-22.

Lower Moreland administrators previously announced they would not be mandating universal mask-wearing upon the start of the school year until certain metrics were met with regard to COVID-19 transmission rates.

The triggering threshold for universal masking originally was if, and when, the community reached the ‘high’ transmission level, which is a 10 percent positivity rate.

By the time this week’s meeting was over, the board amended the health and safety plan to mandate universal mask-wearing indoors when the community is considered to be in the ‘substantial’ transmission category, or between 8 and 9.9 positivity rate for the virus.

Many parents who had urged the board to revise the health and safety plan in this way spoke about the ever-changing nature of this pandemic, and the near daily rise in infection rates mainly due to the Delta variant of the virus.

The health and safety plan would likely be including a universal masking mandate soon enough anyway given the steady daily infection rate increase, so why not just vote on a plan with that provision during this week’s meeting, they asked.

“We can’t go back to normal just yet,” said Gregory Bornstein, a parent of 7-year-old twins.

Bornstein asked the board to “be bold, be brave,” and reject the health and safety plan as is until it contained the universal masking provision.

Children like his cannot yet become vaccinated against COVID-19 due to age restrictions, and he worries about that vulnerable population possibly becoming sick if not everyone is required to be masked inside school buildings.

Educator Hillary Eisenman read off a letter from the Lower Moreland teacher’s union in which the group reiterated its position that masks should be required by all.

She said she agrees with the group and mentioned how her 4-year-old and 10-year-old children are still too young to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, something that could make them susceptible to catching the virus.

“I plead with you to protect our students,” she said.

Another speaker, John Butler, a practicing physician for 25 years, also urged a universal mask mandate, noting that at least half of the district’s student population is currently ineligible for vaccination.

“We are all here because we want what’s best for our students,” Butler said.

Speaker Serena Nguyen, founder of a local organization called ‘Pop the Bubble,’ got up to speak about a survey her group put out to the Lower Moreland community. Nguyen, 24, a former Lower Moreland student, said the survey had over 290 submissions from individuals weighing in on the mask mandate issue. The results can be viewed here.

The board thanked the speakers for taking the time to address the health and safety plan, acknowledging the widespread interest in the issue.

Given the concern over the initial version of the plan, the board ended up rejecting that draft and instead a motion was made to amend it to include a universal mask mandate that would be revisited after the start of school to be tied to the ‘substantial’ transmission category and that the mandate could be rescinded if the community were to return to below the ‘substantial’ transmission category.