'Masks Optional' Policy Debate Rages On In Council Rock Schools

NEWTOWN, PA — Parents in the Council Rock School District are continuing to battle over the district’s optional masking policy, with the start of the new school year less than three weeks away.

The district’s board of education unanimously voted May 20 to allow students to choose whether they wear masks inside during the 2021-22 school year amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Following the board’s unanimous vote to drop its mask mandate, Superintendent Robert Fraser cited low community transmission rates and lower risks for children to develop “any kind of severe illness” in an email to Council Rock families.

On the day of the vote, Bucks County’s seven-day rolling average of new coronavirus cases stood at 55.9 cases per day, down nearly 80 percent from a month prior (259 on April 20), according to statistics from the Pennsylvania Department of Public Health.

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That figure continued to drop for the next five weeks, with the county’s seven-day rolling reaching just 5.7 cases by June 27 — its lowest since March 21, 2020, just a few weeks into the pandemic, public health data shows.

Since the end of June, however, Bucks County has seen a steady increase in its seven-day rolling average of coronavirus cases. That figure stood at 82.4 cases per day on Aug. 8, according to the state’s data.

At the start of the board’s Aug. 5 meeting, Fraser said he was not considering a new mask policy for the 2021-22 school year.

“I want to be as clear as I was ... on May 20th, in that I will not be recommending required masking for our CR students,” Fraser said. “I also sense that this board, as a whole, stands behind its May 20 vote.”

But with infection levels rising throughout the county, a group called Council Rock Parents for Safe Schools launched an online petition imploring board members to reconsider their decision to drop the district’s universal masking policy.

More than 430 parents and community members have signed onto the petition, which urges the district to require students and staff to wear masks until coronavirus vaccines are widely available to children under 12 and the risk of transmission subsides in Bucks County.

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Katie Palmer, a mother of a student at Hillcrest Elementary School and co-author of the petition, spoke at the board’s Aug. 5 meeting to highlight the petition and rising infection levels throughout Bucks County in recent weeks.

“This is not May. We can no longer ignore the recommendations from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), the American Academy of Pediatricians and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia,” Palmer told the board.

“Doctors and scientists everywhere are telling us that unvaccinated children should be masked when indoors at school,” she said.

Jeanne Lindros, of Holland, also called on the board to adopt a stronger health and safety plan for the 2021-22 school year.

“As a parent and an individual with an advanced degree in public health, I’m here to say that I find this four-page … Council Rock Health and Safety Plan to be opaque, anemic and woefully inadequate, especially considering the more contagious and virulent COVID strains circulating today,” Lindros told the board, noting last year’s Health and Safety Plan was almost 50 pages long.

“For the upcoming year, layers of protection — universal masking and distancing — are being removed or limited,” Lindros said. “Many of us are concerned about these changes, and this plan does nothing to inspire confidence in our community’s ability to keep our children safe.”

A counter petition urging the district to stick with its masks-optional policy gained more than 660 signatures in 24 hours, Vanessa Smith, of Langhorne, said during the board’s Aug. 5 meeting.

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The “Council Rock Community Members for Mask Choice” petition states “the risk of serious health issues from COVID-19 in children is very low” and lists “negative health side effects” of wearing masks.

Smith told the board that more children died from the flu in 2018 than from COVID-19 in 2020.

“We have done absolutely nothing for the flu; never wore masks, never quarantined, none of it,” Smith said.

“I should be in charge of my health and my kids’, and you should be in charge of your health and your family’s. No one should choose for you,” Smith said.

Joanne McInerney, of Richboro, also voiced her support for the district’s optional masking policy.

“I do firmly believe that parents have the right to choose what is right for their children,” McInerney said, adding she does “not think that masks are innocuous.”

“Masks are a barrier, and they impact our children in all different ways,” she continued. “It is up to us parents to decide if we are willing to take the risk of COVID, which is pretty low for children, or if we want to take the risk of obscuring so much of their face. I thank you very much for giving us that option.”

Students in the Council Rock School District are set to return to class on Aug. 30. The district is not offering a virtual learning option during the 2021-22 school year.

The Central Bucks School District, the largest in the county, has also adopted an optional masking policy for the 2021-22 school year.

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