HARRISBURG – Pennsylvania reverses course and has issued a mask mandate for schools. During a news conference Wednesday, Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam says the order takes effect next Tuesday, September 7.
It requires students, teachers and staff to wear masks when inside in K-12 buildings and, “Brick and motor or cyber charter schools, private or parochial schools, career and technological centers, intermediate units, Pre-K counts programs, head start programs, private academic nursery schools, and locally funded, Pre-kindergarten activities, and child care providers licensed by the Department of Human Services.”
The order will not apply to student athletes while they’re playing. Beam also says she’s most concerned with number of cases rising nearly 300% among Pennsylvania children ages 0-17 in the last six weeks.
When asked why the mask mandate was put into place now and not earlier, Governor Tom Wolf says he tried, “We sent out guidance that said, ‘We’d like to have the school districts take responsibility for this. Turns out, more than half of the school districts have not. I sent a letter to the leaders of the General Assembly and said, ‘How about you take the lead on this?’ They sent me a letter and said they didn’t want to do it. So I’m left holding the bag.”
The governor says he’s also heard from many parents concerned about too little action being taken by many school districts. But when asked to respond to parents who are strongly against masking, “How are parents going to feel if their kids get sick? How are parents going to feel if their kids can’t go to school because the schools are closed? How will the parents feel if they can’t participate in sports because they’ve been cancelled? I think this is something every parent should act with great anticipation.”
Governor Wolf says state officials will reevaluate the mandate no later than the first week of October, but will continue monitoring the situation. The governor also clarified the order is coming from the Department of Health, not in the form of an emergency disaster declaration, a power he lost to the General Assembly when the constitutional amendment was passed during the May election.
