Metro Nashville public school students and staff are no longer required to wear masks following a February school board vote that takes effect Monday.
MNPS posted a reminder for students and their parents on social media Friday, along with a public service announcement-style video to “illustrate how to treat each other’s decision” an masking.
Both students and staff will now have the option to continue wearing masks as they please; however, face coverings will not be mandated for the first time this school year.
As previously reported by The Tennessee Star, on February 22nd the Metro Nashville School Board (MNSB) voted 7-1 in favor of removing the mask mandate as soon as students and staff returned from spring break week.
Last year, both Governor Bill Lee and state lawmakers attempted to prohibit school districts from implementing mask mandates, however, were blocked by a federal judge as families of children with disabilities sued the state. As previously reported by The Star, the lawsuit claimed that Lee’s executive order violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits the exclusion of students with disabilities from public educational programs and activities. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), children with certain disabilities are more vulnerable to serious illness or death if they get COVID-19.
According to Lee’s executive order originally signed on August 16th, if parents and legal guardians of students in kindergarten through 12th-grade wanted to opt-out their children from wearing a face covering at school, on a school bus, or at school functions, they must have affirmatively notified the local education agency or personnel at the student’s school in writing.
According to data from the Tennessee Department of Education, the number of school-aged children in Davidson County who tested positive for COVID-19 as of Monday, March 14th, was 18. The number of staff who tested positive was less than 5. One month ago, on February 18th, the number of school-aged children in Davidson County who tested positive for COVID-19 was 387. The number of staff who tested positive was 89.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Photo “School Children in Masks” by Metro Nashville Schools.Â
