The Education Department announced Monday that it’s investigating five Republican-led states that have banned mask requirements in schools, saying the policies could amount to discrimination against students with disabilities or health conditions.
The department’s Office for Civil Rights sent letters to education chiefs in Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah. Those states have barred schools from requiring masks among all students and staff, a move that the department says could prevent some students from safely attending school.
“It’s simply unacceptable that state leaders are putting politics over the health and education of the students they took an oath to serve,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement. “The department will fight to protect every student’s right to access in-person learning safely.”
It marks a sharp escalation in the Biden administration’s battle with Republican states that say wearing masks should be a personal choice. President Joe Biden last week asked Cardona to explore possible legal action, prompting the department to examine whether the policies could amount to civil rights violations.
The state policies conflict with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recommends universal mask wearing for students and teachers in the classroom.
If the investigations determine that the state mask bans have discriminated against students with disabilities, it could lead to sanctions including a loss of federal education funding.
The department said it has not opened investigations in other states where mask bans have been overturned by courts or are not being enforced, including in Florida, Texas, Arkansas and Arizona. But the agency said it is “closely monitoring” those states and is prepared to take action if necessary.
The investigations aim to determine whether state mask bans amount to a violation of students’ right to a free, public education. The department is raising concerns that, in areas with high COVID-19 transmissions, the bans could discriminate against students who are at heightened risk for severe illness.
The department is launching the investigations at its own discretion and not in response to complaints from parents, but Cardona said families have raised concerns that mask bans could put children with disabilities or health conditions at risk.
(AP)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
One Response
One wonders why all these centuries, including up to today, there were no masks because of seasonal flu (that kill way more school children than the COVID-19), because of pneumonia (which also kills way more school children than the COVID-19) and so forth ad infinitum.
The importance of seeing faces in terms of child development has long been known and widely accepted. So if anyone is worried about “civil rights”, how about the civil rights of the child to develop naturally and normally. This mask thing makes no more sense psychologically than (in terms of a physical allegory) than injecting every child with insulin just to make sure to catch those who are diabetic, no matter what damage insulin injections will do to a non-diabetic child.
This reminds me of the ban the school boards here passed (for decades) against allowing any peanut product (some schools even banned milk!) to enter schools, including private schools. This despite the fact that peanut is the best cheap source of protein that is essential for a growing child (you can check with any legitimate food bank). The excuse was because some children have allergies to peanut butter (and those allergies are WAY more dangerous and deadly and swift than COVID). Yet so many schools (in particular certain Jewish and especially the smaller ones) have NO student with peanut allergies. Yet the rule still applies with draconian sanctions for violation. But certain products where some students do have an allergy is brought without restriction.
In May of 2021 the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology published its findings that “there’s no evidence that blanket bans on specific foods protect children”, and the best way to protect such children is with education (of the the teachers as well as the children) and planning. “Bans on specific foods don’t teach children how to manage their allergies”.