Caroline Cooper was taking her daughter to get a COVID test when she learned that families can now opt out of masks, even if their school requires them.
She and her daughter live in Wilson County, where nearly all of its schools reported COVID cases last week, including her daughter’s elementary school. It’s one reason Cooper has been pleading for masks to be mandatory in the district.
For weeks, she and a group of concerned parents have been trying to put pressure on the school board. Then, earlier this week, Gov. Bill Lee issued an executive order that overrides districts’ efforts to require face covering.
“I don’t see why they would institute a mask mandate at this point,” Cooper says. “They can’t enforce it.”
The pushback to mask mandates has been mounting for weeks. So far, only a few districts are requiring them. Now, families in districts where masking remains optional worry that Lee’s order will table the discussion altogether.
Wilson County is one of the many school districts in Tennessee where masks have become an explosive issue, rife with heated school board meetings, legal challenges and fervent parent groups.
School leaders were already put in a bind by a lawsuit filed over a mask mandate that instituted last year. And all of this is happening against a backdrop of an emerging COVID wave that is sweeping communities like Wilson County, where vaccination rates have been underwhelming.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone wear masks inside school buildings, regardless of vaccination status. The health organization says that face coverings coupled with other COVID prevention methods can help sustain in-person learning.
Few excuses not to mask
In Nashville, the school district plans to continue enforcing a universal mask mandate, essentially defying the governor’s executive order and potentially running into legal trouble. According to Superintendent Dr. Adrienne Battle, only students with a “legitimate medical need” will be excused from the mandate. So far, school officials say they are not aware of any student who has been approved for an exemption this year.
“The Governor’s executive order was released without prior notice to school districts for review or comment,” Battle wrote in a statement. “As such, Metro Schools will continue to require face masks.”
Meanwhile, in Williamson County, where masks are only required in elementary schools, roughly 3,750 students had already been granted exemptions for medical or religious reasons, before the governor’s announcement.
Superintendent Jason Golden clarified that the executive order doesn’t completely nullify the district’s mandate, but it does simplify the process to be excused.
“We are continuing to strongly encourage masks, but the need for a medical or religious exemption has shifted to a straightforward, pure opt-out,” Golden said in a press release.
This week, after the governor’s announcement, 400 more students in Williamson County have opted out of the mandate, according to school officials. In total, 23% of the district’s elementary students are currently allowed to forgo their mask.
Cooper worries that a similar trend could play out in Wilson County if school leaders decide to implement a masking policy.
“We still believe the board should enact a mask mandate in our schools,” Cooper says. “But we’re disappointed because the governor’s executive order will make any mandate that much more difficult to execute.”
But the health risks could be potentially greater in Wilson County where less than 40% of residents are vaccinated. In Davidson and Williamson County, at least half of residents are inoculated.
The executive order has brought Cooper and her group, Wilson County Parents for Truth, back to the drawing board on how to stop the spread of COVID in schools. Cooper says the group plans to redirect their efforts toward asking school leaders to tighten other safety measures, like social distancing, and asking parents directly to send their children to school with a mask.
“We have to reset now,” Cooper says. “We maybe have to shift our focus to pure advocacy and communication and trying to change hearts and minds.”
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