Colonial School Board Approves Universal Masking for 2021-22

PLYMOUTH-WHITEMARSH, PA — Students in the Colonial School District will face mandatory masking regardless of vaccination status after the school board on Monday approved the district’s 2021-22 health and safety plan.

The Colonial School Board is one of the latest in Montgomery County to require all students and staff to wear facemasks indoors during the upcoming school year as a mitigation strategy against rising COVID-19 infection rates.

Many districts in Montgomery County have revised their health and safety plans to mandate universal masking after county health officials changed their recommendation to urge all students to wear masks while inside school buildings regardless of whether or not they have been vaccinated.

On Monday, the Colonial School Board voted 8-1 in favor of the latest health and safety plan draft, which mandates universal masking inside school buildings. The only board member to vote ‘no’ was Cathy Peduzzi.

Those who addressed the board had mixed viewpoints on whether or not to force students to wear masks this upcoming school year, but many condoned the protocol.

“I appreciate this vote,” parent Nicole Asher, of Plymouth Meeting, told the board. “I want to say thank you sincerely.”

Asher, who has been a pediatric nurse for more than 25 years, had experience creating a COVID-19 unit as part of her job, and she said that there is no doubt that masking works as a strategy to keep kids from getting sick, or even dying, from the coronavirus.

“We are one hundred percent doing the right thing by keeping our children safe,” she said. “Masking works, follow the science, and please do the right thing.”

Parent Cheryll Darby of Whitemarsh, who has one child in middle school and one in elementary school, said if masking was optional she would be concerned her eight-grader might experience peer pressure to remove his mask, or possibly face ridicule from other students. She was also concerned about her younger child since he is not of vaccination age yet.

“I’m sorry that some people are going to be upset about this,” but masking is necessary if society wants to end this pandemic sooner, she told the board.

Conshohocken resident Marisa Russo said she was “deeply disturbed that even one person could vote against this, someone who’s supposed to support the community.

“I’m thankful that we’re going to have masks,” Russo said.

Board member Adam Shupack, who voted in favor of the health and safety plan, raised the issue of the pandemic’s effect on mental health. He said he dealt with the mental health aspect in his own household with his kids.

“We worked through it,” he said. “I don’t see the mask … as the cause of the mental health impacts on kids, and on adults, frankly. I really think it’s the pandemic itself, which unfortunately is something we all are living through today.”

Shupack stressed that there are resources available at schools in the district to help students deal with mental health issues, and he urged those who are struggling to seek out those resources.

Regardless of what the decision is on masking, parents should feel comfortable and not ashamed to reach out,” he said.

One parent asked what would happen if a student flat-out refused to wear a mask. Superintendent Michael Christian said there are disciplinary policies in place to deal with individual circumstances. When the woman asked what legal authority the district has to mandate masks for students, Christian said the School Code gives the board the ability to create such a health-related mandate.

Visit here to read the version of the health and safety plan approved by the Colonial School Board Aug. 9.

The full school board meeting can be found here.