- April 18, 2024
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Come next school year, there's a strong possibility that masks will not be required in Volusia County Schools.
The School Board directed staff to rescind the current face covering mandate to create a new policy that makes them voluntary starting July 1. The board instructed that there be language included that would give the district the option to make face coverings mandatory should COVID-19 cases skyrocket in the future.
Several members of the board expressed being torn regarding the use of face masks in schools, but board members Jamie Haynes and Ruben Colon were steadfast in their respective viewpoints. Haynes believed masks should be optional, and Colon said the district should keep the mandate.
Colon cited the new law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, which provides immunity to individuals, businesses, schools and churches from COVID-19 related lawsuits if the institutions show they made an effort to comply with health standards.
“So we get stuck in the middle trying to make these decisions when they’re passing laws saying that we’re going to follow the guidance of our health department," Colon said. "... For me, I am going to do exactly what they have asked us to do.”
Haynes has supported making masks optional since the beginning of the face covering policy discussion in 2020 and said children's masks are often filthy.
“If I’m not going to let them wear a dirty pants on their legs, why would I be forcing them to wear a dirty mask on their face, and breathe through that all day," Haynes said. "That’s not healthy.”
She also said she believed masking should be a parental choice, but Chair Linda Cuthbert disagreed.
“Politics have made it our decision," Cuthbert said.
The chair, though reluctant and expressing her own personal desire to keep a mask mandate in place, said she would support making masks voluntary as long as the district outline that masks could be made mandatory if COVID-19 conditions worsen. She said the future with the virus variants is unknown and that the district cannot control how families behave outside of school.
When the Centers for Disease Control instructed the public to wear masks, it was to protect others, she explained.
“I think that is missing in a lot of what’s being said in the country today," Cuthbert said.
