Officials weigh masking guidance as new school year looms

By Jay Turner

Canton officials’ advice from their June public webinar to “save the masks” and their warnings about the looming threat of potentially dangerous COVID variants suddenly look prescient following the release of two new face covering advisories by state agencies late last week.

The broader guidance, issued Friday by the Department of Public Health, outlines circumstances when fully vaccinated individuals should continue to wear a mask. Specifically, those individuals are advised to do so when indoors if they have a weakened immune system, are at increased risk due to age or an underlying medical condition, or if someone in their household has an increased risk or is unvaccinated.

A separate advisory, also issued Friday and developed jointly by DPH and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), addresses mask wearing in school settings and strongly recommends that face coverings be worn indoors this fall by all students in kindergarten through grade 6 as well as all unvaccinated students in grades 7 and above and all unvaccinated staff. Masks will also be required for all students on school buses and in health offices but will not be necessary at any age when students are outdoors or while eating indoors.

While neither guidance goes as far as the masking recommendations issued last month by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), state leaders believe they are appropriate at this time for Massachusetts, which boasts one of the highest vaccination rates in the country (64 percent as of Tuesday).

In the case of the DPH guidance for vaccinated residents, the recommendations are similar to those issued by the CDC but do not include a masking recommendation for fully vaccinated individuals who live in areas of “substantial” or “high” transmission. (As of August 1, nine Massachusetts counties met that threshold; Norfolk County, where Canton is located, was not among them and was instead classified in the “moderate” category.)

For school settings, in contrast to the commonwealth’s more measured approach, the CDC has recommended “universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors, regardless of vaccination status.” The American Academy of Pediatrics has also made this recommendation, and the Massachusetts Teachers Association’s board of directors has asked Governor Charlie Baker to go a step further, urging not only mandatory masking for pre-K through college but also calling for a return to social distancing and other safety measures “for school this fall and beyond.”

Several parents, meanwhile, have also been outspoken in their support for a universal masking policy, while a number of others, including supporters of the grassroots organization Bring Kids Back MA, have called on state officials to do away with mask mandates altogether and to allow Massachusetts school children to “finally access a normal school environment based on evidence on the ground.”

Governor Baker has noted that school districts are free to establish their own mask-wearing guidelines, and some, including the city of Boston, have already announced plans to require masks this fall.

In Canton, the local School Committee is expected to take up the matter at its meeting next week, and parents of school-age children, based on recent social media activity, are unsurprisingly divided on the issue.

On Monday, the Canton Board of Health held a preliminary discussion on masks in the schools and decided, at least for now, to recommend the guidance outlined by DESE (masks optional for vaccinated students).

BOH Chairman Anjali Schutt stressed that she personally would advise students to wear a mask, although she acknowledged that if an older, fully vaccinated student did not want to wear one, then she would want to respect their personal choice.

BOH member Julie Goodman said that she too would want to err on the side of caution and would certainly want mask wearing to be mandated at the younger grades. For grades seven and up, Goodman said she would be more comfortable with students not wearing masks if the vast majority of the school population were vaccinated.

As of July 29, per DPH statistics, 64 percent of Canton residents ages 12-15 and 94 percent of those ages 16-19 had received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine. (The percent fully vaccinated stood at 52 and 81 percent, respectively.)

Schutt emphasized that the BOH maintains a “great” working relationship with the School Department and they continue to solicit and consider input from the broader community. “We’re listening to everyone, and we’re taking all of their questions into account,” she said.

All agreed that they would continue to keep a close eye on the data, follow the science, and update their recommendations accordingly.

For the latest COVID mask requirements issued by DPH, visit mass.gov/info-details/covid-19-mask-requirements. To view the full text of the most recent DESE guidance, go to doe.mass.edu/covid19/on-desktop.html.

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