“School will open for 2021-2022 with a universal indoor masking policy: All students in a school facility will be masked when indoors except when eating. Adults will be masked in the presence of children.” — Oxford Hills School District Reopening Plan for 2021-22 school year

 

PARIS — After a rigorous masking debate with the public, the Oxford Hills School District board voted 13-4 Monday night to require face coverings for all students this fall.

Superintendent Monica Henson’s reopening plan for School Administrative District 17 will be implemented when schools start Sept. 1.

Directors proposed several amendments to the plan, including separating the mask issue from the reopening plan altogether, but most ultimately failed. One motion to amend made by West Paris Director William Rolfe — requiring all board members to wear masks at meetings — failed to get a second.

The plan calls for opening school with “a universal indoor masking policy: All students in a school facility will be masked when indoors except when eating. Adults will be masked in the presence of children.”

Earlier during the discussion, Rolfe also suggested restrictions be added to other school health and safety protocols, such as mandating children to wear sunscreen with or without parental approval, automatically sending home any child found to have lice and requiring N95 masks instead of multi-layered cloth masks, although he did not go so far as making a motion about them.

One amendment to the reopening plan that was approved was to strengthen Henson’s authority to make day-to-day decisions regarding COVID-19. The plan, as presented by the superintendent, asked for authority to loosen restrictions when public health conditions warrant. Director Lew Williams of Hebron made a motion that would grant her the authority to make stricter changes without board approval, if she deemed it necessary. The alternative would be to call emergency meetings to make adjustments.

Director Diana Olsen of Otisfield agreed with granting Henson more authority, stating that in the past there have been times when different schools closed on a daily basis due to COVID. The amendment to give Henson more leeway to act under worsening circumstances passed by a 14-4 vote, with one abstention.

Community members Ron Ramsey, Courtney Lynch and Rob Isley all addressed the board with statements to consider the consequences of children having to wear masks, including the harm to verbal and nonverbal (facial) communication, the adverse effects to mental health and social development and the health hazards masks can pose.

Lynch spoke about the different surfaces that students’ masks are exposed to in a day – like the floor.

“Wearing a mask out in the real world traps everything against your face,” she said. “This is completely unhealthy and it is completely unsafe. This is simply a fact…

“The mask is supposed to serve a medical purpose. The federal government, state and school administrators have no place in making medical decisions for anyone, with each person’s inalienable right as a human being to have autonomy over their own bodies,” Lynch said. “Parents make those decisions for their children.”

One parent, Savannah Jones, made a poignant statement about watching her high school aged son’s anxiety and depression mount last year while in lockdown and then having to wear a mask.

“I watched my older son not come out of his room for two weeks last year,” Jones said, fighting tears. “We watched when kids were killing themselves and that was terrifying to us.

“We trust when our pediatrician tells us that masks keep our kids safe. I really listen to every word she says. But I can’t listen on this because I am way more fearful of what can happen, especially (to) my oldest son when he puts that mask on and goes back in that building and goes through the hell they went through last year,” Jones added. “Football season taken away (from) him was critical. It sounds so trivial to someone who doesn’t understand, but when you take your child off antidepressants and that’s all they have and it’s gone?”

Jones said she feared having to tell her son he would have to go back to wearing a mask and repeating the mental impact that the coronavirus had on him and especially the possibility that she might lose him over it.

Dr. Jennifer Sunday, a pediatrician from Norway, said that the most important thing is for kids to return to school safely and she noted the dangers posed to them by the delta variant, as well as co-morbidities to other diseases like respiratory syncytial virus, the leading cause of pneumonia in young children.

Later in the meeting, Director Anna Gregoire of Otisfield addressed the emotional toll and mental health pressures that children go through with their peers when they have been ill with the virus. When her household of five was infected, her family’s quarantine period stretched out for six weeks, creating a stigma she said still affects her children months later.

Henson told the board that SAD 17’s COVID response team meets on a weekly basis to review  data, as well as logistics and operations to respond to it. While she was recommending a mask requirement as school gets underway, if data shows declines in illness and higher vaccination rates her recommendations would change.

“I don’t take it lightly. I hoped that as we approach the start of school that the vaccine program would make masks a moot point,” Henson said. “The price of safety in a school building is not always going to make everyone happy with the outcome, regardless of the recommendations. There is a price we pay in the middle of a global pandemic. And the price we paid last year was to go into lockdown. What we’re being asked to do now is to not go into lockdown, but to get vaccinated and protect children in school.

“If a student has a peanut allergy, there is no debate about the freedom about the rest of the children to eat peanut butter in the classroom or bring food to school with peanuts.” she continued. “We make that sacrifice for that one child who is vulnerable and will suffer if we violate that situation.”

Directors also authorized the district to hold onsite vaccine clinics at the high school. Shots will be administered by MaineHealth and a doctor and paramedics will be on hand to monitor for potential adverse reactions. Students 17 and  younger will require parental approval. The board vote to authorize vaccine clinics passed by 17-3.

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