FAWN GROVE, Pa. — Pennsylvania’s universal mask mandate in schools took effect Sept. 7, but the debate over who must enforce it is playing out in school districts across Central Pennsylvania.
The mandate applies to everyone who enters a school building—including students, teachers, parents, and visitors—yet a roomful of parents at a South Eastern School District board meeting Thursday night remained bare-faced. A group of more than a hundred parents had come to protest the mask mandate and ask the school board to find a workaround.
South Eastern School District, like all the other 499 school districts in Pennsylvania, is mostly left to enforce the mask mandate itself.
Gov. Tom Wolf last week said school districts were responsible for ensuring students remained masked in school. The state Department of Health also directs schools to enforce the mandate. Their policy states schools that don’t enforce it could have certifications rescinded and individual officials could face lawsuits.
Several county district attorneys, including those of York, Lancaster, and Lebanon counties, have announced they will not criminally cite or prosecute violations of the mandate.
At the school board meeting, South Eastern officials asked parents to willingly comply with the order, warning of the consequences of not doing so.
“We’re going to hold you accountable, because you are," school board president Brian Hoffman said. "You are the only one who can make this decision."
South Eastern is planning on forcing students to wear masks, though. They are among several school districts using a loophole that allows kids to go unmasked with just a parent’s signature. The district sent out an exemption form allowing parents to certify a face covering would cause or exacerbate a medical condition, using the language for exemptions laid out in the order.
“There are a lot of holes in that mandate or a lot of broad language with that,” district parent Renee Friedel said.
Some parents continued to push for fully-optional masking.
“I do understand that you feel you are in an impossible position," parent Christina Markel said. "But I would encourage you to put the power in the hands of the parents."
Mask mandates have stoked fierce feelings in school districts across the region. The South Western school board, also in York County, ended a meeting abruptly Wednesday night after audience members refused to wear masks.