Mason City Schools shifts policy, will require masks for students pre-K through grade 6

Starting Tuesday, students at three Mason City Schools buildings from pre-kindergarten through grade 6 will have to wear masks inside their schools.

The change for younger students comes two weeks after more than 100 physicians criticized the district's original decision to recommend but not require masks for any students. Staff members within six feet of students and all visitors to the district's schools previously had to be masked but students did not.

Superintendent Jonathan Cooper announced the shift in posts by the district Monday evening on social media and in emails to parents. Some Mason students have been in class since last Thursday, with Monday being the first day that all students were back.

"Masks provide a layer of protection that help keep students safe and out of quarantine," Martin said in a news release from the district. Keeping kids out of quarantine and in class is the goal of the rule change.

"It was important for us to get our kids back in schools for us to make some observations about how we are going to navigate this school year." he said in a video posted on Facebook.

"Every decision we make around masks can be very difficult, very personal, very emotional for your family specifically," he says in the video. "I hear you and I've heard you along the way."

The district continues to strongly recommend that middle school and high school students wear masks while indoors, "particularly for those who are unvaccinated," Martin said in the news release. Those schools will not require masks "unless there are rising levels of positive cases and subsequent quarantines that would necessitate making mask-wearing a requirement."

More than 100 physicians in the Mason and Deerfield Township community signed a letter to Mason City Schools on Aug. 2 after the district announced it would recommend, but not require, masks in school buildings for the 2021-2022 school year.

"For the past year we have not only dealt with COVID in our personal lives, but also our professional ones," the letter said. "While we are grateful that the country is in a better place now with COVID than we were a year ago, we also know that the pandemic is not over yet and that now is not the time to abandon precautions." The full letter is posted at the bottom of this story.

Mason schools sent out its original 2021-2022 school year safety protocols on July 27.

"While at school it’s strongly recommended, but not required, that unvaccinated students and staff wear a face-covering/mask while indoors," the newsletter reads. "If requirements change, Mason will adjust as well."

All students and staff must wear masks on school buses, the letter reads.

The newsletter states the district will continue to monitor conditions and data in partnership with local public health offices and "will update protocols as needed." 

That wasn't good enough, according to the local doctors. Their letter implored the district to require universal indoor masking of all students and staff as a step against the novel coronavirus.

The Ohio Department of Health strongly recommends consistent mask wearing for individuals who are not yet fully vaccinated, according to updated guidance released July 27. The department is not requiring masks be used at K-12 schools.

In their letter to Mason City Schools, the local physicians emphasized the fact that students under the age of 12 are not yet eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, and "are therefore still vulnerable to COVID infection and any resulting ill effects."

The letter was signed by 108 physicians and directed to district superintendent  Cooper and the Mason school board members.