The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington on Thursday announced a revised mask policy that will allow many of its students to decide whether they should wear face coverings in schools.
Starting Monday, face coverings will become optional for Maryland schools overseen by the Archdiocese of Washington where there are not mask mandates from local government leaders.
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Catholic schools in D.C. will continue to mandate masks, following the District-wide school mandate. However, leaders in the archdiocese are urging city officials to make face coverings optional and encouraging parents to advocate for the change.
“A growing consensus of experts and stakeholders, both locally and across the country, have determined that it is now safe to eliminate mask mandates for schools,” Kelly Branaman, the schools secretary and superintendent for the archdiocese, wrote in a letter to parents.
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Branaman wrote that the change in policy comes as more people have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, including younger children, and case numbers have been steadily dropping locally.
Kathleen Smith, whose two sons attend St. Jane de Chantal School in Bethesda, Md., said she supports the lifting of the mask mandate because several factors have changed. She said the school has a good air filtration system, there are higher vaccination rates in the area and more parents have access to at-home tests, and she monitors a community coronavirus case count her pediatrician sends weekly. She said that she thinks the school should follow local public health guidelines but that she feels comfortable letting her children decide whether they want to wear a mask.
“Kids are adaptable,” she said. “If numbers rise and they need to wear masks again kids would adapt.”
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Betsy Hamilton, principal at St. Jane de Chantal, said that she expected responses from parents after an announcement went out Thursday but had received only one email, and it was supportive of the change. She said she knows there will be some people who are concerned, including a few teachers and parents, and she has her own heart condition that concerns her.
“It’s the February and March groundhog days. I always warn my teachers: Watch out. Be nice to each other,” she said. “I call it the itchy times. People are looking for things to be angry about.”
But, Hamilton said, she thinks most parents will be pleased with the mask change.
She said that the school has had interruptions, including quarantining the soccer team earlier this year, but that most of the cases have been isolated to smaller groups. Over the Christmas break, she said, several teachers and students contracted the virus, but they were at home.
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“We were talking the other day about it’ll be interesting to see if strep and coughing and colds will come back, because it’s been nice not to have that,” she said. “Parents have been very responsible about keeping their kids home when they’ve had a cold or scratchy throat.”
Sheila Dugan said she believes her three children, who attend Blessed Sacrament in Northwest Washington, have struggled under mask mandates with anxiety and with not being able to play more freely with classmates.
Dugan is part of a coalition of parents who have written to the archdiocese asking for normalcy in schools. She said that when parents learned that the archdiocese had not decided on its mask policy for the 2022-2023 school year, “parents went nuts. There was no off-ramp.”
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“We believe everyone has the freedom and free will to exercise whatever they feel is important for their child,” she said. “At no point were we saying they should be forbidden. This is about mask choice and a return to normalcy.”
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Dugan said she believes the harm of mask protocols outweigh the coronavirus risk it poses to children.
“I empathize with [people who are] medically fragile and at risk,” said Dugan, who is a brain tumor survivor. “We also need to protect children. Parents should decide if it’s in the best interest for their child to wear a mask.”
Youngkin signs law requiring Virginia public schools to make masks optional by March 1
In Virginia, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) issued an order in January removing the state’s mask mandate in schools. The Diocese of Arlington’s schools followed suit by going to a mask-optional policy.
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Brandon Eubank, who has a kindergartner at a Catholic school under the Diocese of Arlington, said he and his wife got emotional reading Youngkin’s executive order. He said that his son was showing less interest in going to school but that now his demeanor has changed since he has not had to wear a mask.
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“Too many people in Catholic education thought it was a fine idea or were indifferent to it,” he said. “A Paw Patrol mask on a 5-year-old boy isn’t doing a d--- thing.”
If a teacher is high-risk, Eubank said, perhaps the teacher should seek employment elsewhere.
“I can’t imagine wanting your child to wear a mask for seven hours a day and actually be okay with that,” he said. “Requiring children to protect adults is a gross inversion of the social order.”
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The question of whether D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) will rescind its mask mandate on school doesn’t appear to be currently under consideration.
On Friday during a D.C. Council meeting, member Elissa Silverman (I-At Large) asked Kevin Donahue, the city administrator, whether the mayor is considering rescinding the requirement that children in D.C. schools wear masks.
“That’s not a conversation we’re having right now,” Donahue said. “There’s not any active discussion right now.”
Julie Zauzmer Weil contributed to this report.