Blue State School Forces Kids To Wear Masks After 3 Students Test Positive For COVID-19

A Maryland school is now requiring kindergarteners to wear masks, a school official told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

After three kindergarteners tested positive for COVID-19, an elementary school located in Montgomery County, Maryland, will now require the students and staff involved to wear masks for ten days, according to Kishna Ricks, administrative secretary at the elementary school. The policy also requires that students be sent home to take COVID-19 tests in the event that someone shows symptoms of the virus.

“You may return to school starting on day 6 if symptoms are improving and no fever is present for at least 24 hours; however, masks must be worn on days 6-10,” Montgomery County Public Schools’ COVID-19 policy reads.

A January 2023 Cochrane meta-analysis found that it was “uncertain whether wearing masks or N95/P2 respirators helps to slow the spread of respiratory viruses.”

Schools across the country have been reimplementing mask mandates. Runge Independent School District in South Texas shut down in August after 10 staff members caught COVID-19. Lee County School District and Magoffin County Schools cancelled classes in August after some kids came down with various respiratory viruses including COVID-19, according to the Washington Examiner.

Children aren’t as likely to become seriously ill from COVID-19, according to the Mayo Clinic, a nonprofit American academic medical center. “While children are as likely to get COVID-19 as adults, kids are less likely to become severely ill. Up to 50% of children and adolescents might have COVID-19 with no symptoms,” their website reads.

Multiple hospital systems around the U.S. are bringing back mask mandates as well. Auburn Community Hospital in New York, UMass Memorial Health in Boston, Massachusetts and University Hospital in Syracuse, New York, are requiring masks again following a rise in COVID-19 cases.

Brandon Poulter on September 5, 2023

AAN Staff