The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics still recommends those who are not fully vaccinated and aged two and older to wear a mask in indoor public places. School districts, including Milford Exempted Village School District, are rescinding mask policies. The District encourages anyone who wants to wear a mask to wear a mask. Students may also still have to wear a mask while on the bus per federal guidelines on transit. Photo provided.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics still recommends those who are not fully vaccinated and aged two and older to wear a mask in indoor public places. School districts, including Milford Exempted Village School District, are rescinding mask policies. The District encourages anyone who wants to wear a mask to wear a mask. Students may also still have to wear a mask while on the bus per federal guidelines on transit. Photo provided.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics still recommend mask-wearing among the unvaccinated in an issue that has become salient again with school districts revving up for another school year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

At its June meeting, the Milford Exempted Village School District Board of Education did its first reading of rescinding face coverings following updated recommendations from the Ohio Department of Health.

The policy was adopted on Aug. 20, 2020. The second of two required readings occurred at the July 15 meeting.

During public comment, Emily Mason, a parent to two Seipelt Elementary students, spoke up with concern about the rescinding of the face coverings policy.

Mason said she understood rescinding the policy as it regards those 12 and older who have had the opportunity to get vaccinated, but elementary-aged students have not.

“Our children are not immune from this disease and have actually shown effects from a condition known as long COVID,” she said.

Mason added that there is a solution, which is masking in face-to-face classroom settings, to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

She asked the Board for a policy to protect the elementary-aged students until they are able to have the option to get vaccinated.

Later, when the policy came up for a second reading, Emily Chesnut, board member, said when the majority of the District’s elementary students are in a building unvaccinated, “I think it’s a big risk.”

“So, I would like the administration to consider in buildings where the majority of the people do not have the vaccine available, that we consider some sort of guidelines around wearing masks,” she said.

John Spieser, superintendent, echoing his conversations with Julianne Nesbit, health commissioner at Clermont County Public Health, said there’s not expected to be any new mandates from the state regarding masks, but there could be recommendations.

Spieser said they have another month to look at the issue and see what happens.

“We have done everything this past year that the Ohio Department of Health and the Ohio governor has asked us to do in terms of mandates, so we have followed that and we will continue to follow that,” he said, adding that they’ll still be doing cleaning and give students the chance to sanitize. “We’ll still recommend that families do a health check before they come in, and don’t come to school if you’re sick.”

Everyone, including students, always have the option to wear a mask, he said.

Dave Yockey, board member, said he would encourage everyone to get vaccinated, but he’s reluctant with how open things have moved to require masks. That said, he encouraged Spieser to be aware of even the first hint that there could be a problem with rising cases again in the school system and to re-implement the mask requirement.

Chris Hamm, board president, said they’ve given Spieser the autonomy to make these decisions as he works with staff, parents and tracks the state health orders and CDC guidance, and they continue to trust him and his due diligence.

He said he doesn’t favor requiring masks for elementary children or staff, but he does have two concerns. First, the students and staff who are immunocomprised and figuring out a plan to protect them. Secondly, there is a federal mask transit order and how that applies to busing.

To the first concern, Spieser said in the past, such students have worked with their building principal and other staff to work around that issue, although it won’t look like Eagle Online, the remote learning platform established throughout the last school year in response to the pandemic.

On transportation, it’s still a possibility that students will have to wear masks while on the bus, Spieser said.

“Still more to come on that, we have another month and hopefully we’ll have more information,” he added.

Spieser added that he spoke with the Milford Education Association, the teacher’s union, and they were 100 percent on board with no mask requirements and keeping it optional.

In a statement to The Sun, Julianne Nesbit said, “We still recommend that anyone who is not vaccinated wear masks in public places, especially indoors or where social distancing isn’t possible. With schools resuming soon, we know many students (especially those under the age of 12) aren’t vaccinated, and we encourage students who aren’t vaccinated wear masks and practice other safety measures when in school or other indoor settings. We are waiting for additional guidance from the Ohio Department of Health regarding schools.”

In a statement to The Sun, Jennifer Hardin, the deputy director of the Division of Legal Services for the OSBA, said OSBA’s role is to provide school board members with the most up-to-date information available from local, state and federal sources so “they effectively can exercise local control over their school districts within the parameters of relevant law and other governmental guidelines.”

“To that end, OSBA has consistently shared administrative and legislative actions on the issue of face coverings. Most recently, we issued a blog post to our members last Friday explaining the affect of H.B. 244 on mask guidelines. As the post notes, Attorney General Yost will be issuing additional guidance on enforcement of the law,” Hardin said.

She added that OSBA will provide updates on that and other aspects of the topic as they become available.

The law in question, H.B. 244, was signed by Governor Mike DeWine on July 14 and becomes effective on Oct. 13, prohibits school districts from:

– Requiring an individual to receive a vaccine for which the Food and Drug Administration has not granted full approval.

– Discriminating against an individual who has not received such a vaccine, including by requiring the individual to engage in or refrain from engaging in activities or precautions that differ from the activities or precautions of an individual who has received such a vaccine.

All three of the currently available COVID-19 vaccines in the United States, Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, were approved by the FDA under an Emergency Use Authorization.

The FDA is currently considering full approval of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

Also at the state level, State Sen. Andrew Brenner, who represents District 19 covering Delaware and Franklin Counties and a part of Knox County, has sponsored Senate Bill 209 to prevent public schools and universities from requiring students, staff or visitors to wear masks while in class, at school-sponsored sports or during extracurricular activities or any other place on school premises.

However, the CDC still recommends that those who are not fully vaccinated and aged two and older should wear a mask in indoor public places.

“People who have a condition or are taking medications that weaken their immune system may NOT be protected even if they are fully vaccinated. They should continue to take all precautions recommended for unvaccinated people, including wearing a well-fitted mask, until advised otherwise by their healthcare provider,” the CDC said.

Someone is considered fully vaccinated:

– two weeks after their second dose in a two-dose series, with the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines; or

– two weeks after a single-dose vaccine, such as the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

ODH strongly encourages people who are unvaccinated adhere to the CDC guidelines, wherein unvaccinated individuals should still mask and socially distance themselves.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends universal masking in schools for everyone older than two in its updated guidelines for the 2021-2022 school year, going a step further than the CDC.

Sonja O’Leary, chair of the AAP Council on School Health Executive Committee, said pediatricians should emphasize a “layered approach that prioritizes attending school in person, while protecting students and staff from SARS-CoV-2 variants that may be more transmissible.”

That layered approach is why the AAP believes the benefits of in-person school outweigh the risks in “almost all circumstances.”

“As we start the 2021-’22 school year, a large portion of students are not eligible to be vaccinated and there are COVID variants that are more contagious. Because of this and because we want to have all students in school, the AAP advocates for all students, teachers and staff to wear masks while indoors in school,” O’Leary said.

An added benefit, AAP said, was that universal masking also protects students and staff from other respiratory illnesses that would take time away from school.

Mask-wearing, combined with social distancing, did seem to have quite the influence on the spread of the flu during the 2020-2021 season, making it virtually nonexistent. During the 2019-2020 flu season, there were 39 million to 56 million cases; 18 million to 26 million medical visits; 410,000 to 740,000 flu hospitalizations; and 24,000 to 62,000 flu deaths.

In that time-frame, there were 195 pediatric deaths, defined as a person under the age of 18. By comparison, in the 2020-2021 flu season, there was one. Overall flu deaths were 700.

To read the full AAP guidance, please visit https://bityl.co/7uQe.

The board unanimously voted to rescind the face coverings policy.