The Montgomery County Public Schools Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday to drop the district’s mask mandate effective immediately for the school system of roughly 160,000 students.
“This board would like to remind our community that the decision to wear or remove a mask is an individual and very personal one,” Montgomery County Board of Education President Brenda Wolff said ahead of the vote. Wolff called for community members to treat with respect teachers, staffers and students who may choose to continue to wear a mask.
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As all school board members raised their hands to vote in favor of dropping the mask requirement, a parent in the audience quietly cheered, “Yes!”
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Montgomery, Maryland’s largest school system, was one of the few in the state to keep a masking requirement intact. A majority of Maryland’s school districts made masks optional in recent weeks, after the State Board of Education lifted its statewide regulation and shifted control back to local school systems.
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In voting, board members noted new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that doesn’t require universal masking in school settings. The CDC’s new public health guidance eases masking for most Americans, and recommends schools to use universal masking only in communities with high levels of coronavirus transmission. In areas with low levels of the virus, which include most of the D.C. metro area, masks can be removed indoors, including in schools.
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The Montgomery County Education Association — a union that represents roughly 14,000 classroom teachers and school staffers — said ahead of the vote that it would support a measure from the school system that followed CDC and local and state health authorities’ guidance.
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At the meeting Tuesday, audience members held up signs calling for the mask mandate’s end. Some of them booed and laughed as students and community members asked for the masking requirement to remain in place during the public comment session.
D.C.-area schools’ mask policies examined as more states rescind them
Board member Lynne Harris turned to the audience at the end of public testimony and told them she was “incredibly disappointed” with how they acted during the public comment session.
“We’re not going to be lectured to by someone who has abused our students for two years,” one audience member called out to Harris. “Justice is coming.”
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In the past month, the Montgomery County Board of Education condemned online harassment that targeted the student member of the board, Hana O’Looney. The board wrote that individuals online were using “vile language and personal attacks” that were “clearly harmful attempts at cyberbullying.” O’Looney previously voiced at a board meeting that she was in favor of keeping a mask requirement in place, after meeting with many students about the issue.
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“This behavior is reprehensible, particularly when adults are targeting a student,” the board wrote in a statement.
Maryland Legislative panel approves lifting statewide school mask mandate, giving local districts control
Two public school systems in Maryland were keeping their requirements in place as of Tuesday — Prince George’s County and Baltimore City. Prince George’s County has previously indicated it plans to lift its mandate after it reaches an 80 percent vaccination rate in the county. Baltimore City will lift its masking requirement on March 14.
This story will be updated.