The leaders of the Park City Education Association, the union that represents most teachers in the Park City School District, approached the Summit County Council on Wednesday, encouraging the elected officials to implement a mask mandate in schools before classes get underway.
We support that idea, though county leaders say it’s not entirely clear whether the council has the authority to do so.
In any case, the debate about a mandate obscures a more basic truth: It shouldn’t take a mask requirement for parents to send their children to school with one this fall. With the more contagious delta variant of the coronavirus surging throughout the state, masks are an essential tool to ensure the safety of students, particularly those who are too young to be eligible for a vaccine yet.
The arguments against mask wearing in schools are misguided, bordering on ludicrous. They aren’t a form of child cruelty. They don’t infringe on a student’s rights. They don’t lower the wearer’s oxygen levels.
They do, however, significantly slow transmission of the virus.
The truth is no one is happy that masks are still necessary, especially given that it seemed plausible a few months ago that it would be safe for students to return to class without them. The statewide vaccination campaign was accelerating and case numbers in the state were plummeting. But the pace of vaccinations slowed. Then the delta variant gained a foothold, upending the rules of the pandemic and dashing hopes that we were near the end of the crisis.
Now, we’re in a dangerous, new phase of the pandemic — one in which children may be more vulnerable. Whereas children have largely been spared the worst of the pandemic so far, experts say delta is now sending more of them to the hospital, though it’s not evident whether that’s because the variant is more dangerous or simply because it’s spreading faster.
Masks can and will help, giving Summit County’s three school districts the best chance to protect students and keep them where they should be throughout this academic year: in a real classroom, not a virtual one.
That should be apparent at this point in the pandemic, and should give parents all the motivation they need to ensure masks are added to the list of essential school supplies alongside pencils and calculators. Where the safety of our children is concerned, we shouldn’t need the County Council, or anyone else, to make us do the right thing.