By Collin Cunningham
(CLEVELAND) Students of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District may be expected to wear face masks until October after the system announced on Monday that all school personnel and guests would be required to use the coverings for five weeks.
Per 19 News, CMSD CEO Eric Gordon said that all indoor events and activities will be masked events once the district returns to five-day schooling when the year begins on Aug. 23. Other measures designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in schools this fall include bringing a new, full-time nurse to each of CMSD's campuses while existing social distancing and sanitation practices will continue.
The news comes as a pair of bills with opposing views on coronavirus guidelines filter through Ohio Congress. DeWine most recently signed Ohio House Bill 244, which stipulates that institutions and individuals treat vaccinated and un-vaccinated individuals equally. It prevents educational authorities from requiring students to get vaccinated before returning to school.
Spectrum News reported that the mask mandate may be the result of restrictions created by HB 244 since educators are now forced to use other measures to prevent coronavirus from spreading now that vaccines are out of the question.
The other piece of legislation, Ohio Senate Bill 209, would prevent CMSD and other public schools and colleges from requiring students to wear masks. Debuted last week by Powell, Ohio, Republican Sen. Andrew Brenner, the Ohio Capital Journal reports that SB 209 would prevent ratifying groups like the Ohio Department of Education or school boards from making students wear masks.
While individuals would still be allowed to wear masks if they choose to do so, educational bodies would not be able to enforce or require them, though health departments could potentially override the bill and make masks obligatory.
“Why would you not trust your local school boards and superintendents who know their school districts the best, taking information from state and local health departments to be able to determine whether or not their local school districts should be open?” Brenner argued during the debate about school reopenings in June of 2020.