Masking in schools has become so divisive that even Tennessee’s health commissioner won’t suggest whether districts should require face coverings. But at the same time, she’s asking for help so the state avoids overrunning children’s hospitals with pediatric COVID patients.

The lack of guidance leaves school boards torn between the polar ends of passionate parents.

“There are very strongly opinionated parents on both sides of this issue,” says Dr. Lisa Piercey, the state’s health commissioner. “So they should use that very classic representative form of government.”

There’s no mention that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has made a clear recommendation for universal masking in schools until the delta variant surge subsides. And masking is more about protecting others than it is about protecting yourself — a talking point that Tennessee officials have discontinued.

When pressed on Friday by WPLN News about how she would advise a local school district, Piercey, a practicing pediatrician, never recommended requiring masks. Instead, she echoed the governor in saying that parents know best.

Williamson County is poised for a showdown Tuesday night in a special-called meeting to discuss masking policies. Dozens of doctors, flanked by many parents, have urged public schools — which resumed last week — to require masks. But the opposition is equally vocal, judging by the long back-and-forth on social media photos of children on the first day of class with and without masks.

A similar scene is playing out in school boards statewide.

So far, schools in Memphis and Nashville have required masks to start the year. Hancock County made the surprise move just a few days in after several tested positive.

“Thanks for having the courage to do the right thing,” one commenter wrote on Facebook.

Politics led by the legislature

The state legislature has continued to rein in the COVID response, most recently threatening to override school mask mandates. Meanwhile, in neighboring Arkansas, the governor has called a special session to reverse that state’s ban on school mask mandates, which he now says he “regrets.”

Tennessee’s legislature did ban public colleges from requiring vaccinations. But universities — including this week Middle Tennessee State and Tennessee State — are requiring masks.

“This is not how we had intended to begin the year, and it is my hope that this requirement will be short-lived,” MTSU president Sydney McPhee told students in a letter dated Monday.

Tennessee doctors who have urged more caution throughout the pandemic are renewing their calls for elected officials to take the latest surge seriously.

Dr. Jason Martin, a pulmonary specialist with political aspirations who has been caring for COVID patients for the last 18 months at Sumner Regional Medical Center, says local school boards should try to take the politics out of their decisions over masking policies and think of protecting children.

As of Sunday, nearly 40 children are hospitalized with COVID statewide, and health officials expect the surge to continue just as it has in neighboring states.

“People say, ‘Well, it doesn’t affect many kids.’ Well, how many kids is it OK to die? I say none,” Martin said Monday. “There’s a reason I don’t let my kids go outside and play in a lightning storm even though it’s really unlikely that lightning is going to strike them — because it’s completely preventable.”