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Posted on 11/10/2021 2:53:38 PM PST by lightman
At least 10 Lancaster County school districts have announced a return to mask-optional policies following a Commonwealth Court decision on Wednesday voiding the state acting secretary of health’s order requiring students, employees and visitors to wear masks while inside school buildings.
Conestoga Valley, Donegal, Elizabethtown Area, Ephrata Area, Hempfield, Lampeter-Strasburg, Penn Manor, Pequea Valley, Solanco and Warwick school district administrators during a frenetic Wednesday afternoon shared that they are returning to the mask-optional policy outlined in their original board-approved health and safety plans immediately.
Eastern Lancaster County School District is already essentially mask-optional, as it has allowed parents to opt their children out of the mask requirement without a doctor's signature.
It’s unclear how the county’s other school districts — including Octorara Area, which is in both Chester and Lancaster counties — will respond to the court’s decision. Complicating matters is the state health department's intention to appeal the Commonwealth Court decision, which would keep the school mask order in place, according to the state.
"The Secretary of Health's authority is clearly outlined in existing law," state Department of Health spokesman Mark O'Neill said in an email Wednesday afternoon. "The Department of Health has directed counsel to file an appeal today. Filing of the appeal will immediately stay the Commonwealth Court’s decision."
According to a Pennsylvania Supreme Court docket, Beam filed a notice of appeal with the court on Wednesday.
However, no communication has come from the state health or education departments telling school districts what they should do, letting confusion among school officials fester throughout the day Wednesday.
Brian Barnhart, the executive director of the Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13, said absent state guidance, today could be the “wild wild west” in terms of masking. Barnhart spoke with LNP | LancasterOnline before the state announced its decision to appeal.
Three county school districts — Columbia Borough, Manheim Township and School District of Lancaster — had mask requirements in place before the state issued its order in the fall, when COVID-19 cases were climbing at an alarming rate and children ages 5 to 11 were not eligible for vaccination, as they are now.
School District of Lancaster spokesman Adam Aurand said the district's approach to masks has been guided by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations, which still include universal masking inside schools. The Lancaster school board has not discussed modifying its protocols, Aurand said.
The mask policy update Hempfield posted on its website detailing its return to a mask-optional stance acknowledged that there may be questions regarding the court decision and asked for patience as the district reviews new information.
Penn Manor's update said while masks are optional now, the court decision may be appealed, and new information will be shared "when it becomes available."
Conestoga Valley Superintendent Dave Zuilkoski shared a similar message in his update.
"Much to my chagrin, and just so no one is caught off-guard, it is also my understanding that we may not have heard the last of the mask issue," he wrote. "There may be an appeal by the Governor of the decision to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. We will continue to share information as it becomes available."
The Commonwealth Court ruling comes just over a month after state Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam’s school mask order went into effect statewide, sparking contentious debates over masks and state mandates at school board meetings in Lancaster County and beyond.
It also prompted two legal challenges, one from state Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, a Republican. In weighing those challenges, the court majority on Wednesday reached the conclusion that Beam did not have the constitutional authority to issue such an order.
Judge Christine Fizzano Cannon, a Republican, wrote the majority ruling. She said because Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf did not have a disaster emergency proclamation in effect, Beam’s measure was unenforceable.
The state’s disease control law, upon which the order was based, does not give health secretaries “the blanket authority to create new rules and regulations out of whole cloth, provided they are related in some way to the control of disease or can otherwise be characterized as disease control measures,” Fizzano Cannon wrote.
The judges “express herein no opinion regarding the science or efficacy of mask-wearing or the politics underlying the considerable controversy the subject continues to engender," she added.
The opinion didn't address whether schools can adopt mask requirements of their own. The Wolf administration planned to lift the school mask order and allow school boards to choose whether to require masks beginning Jan. 17, 2022.
The court's decision does not impact the federal mandate that masks be worn on public transportation, which includes school buses.
Pennsylvania Ping!
Please ping me with articles of interest.
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Well, this is positive.
What confusion, folks? Some people are navel attentive here. Just do it.
Yup, leave the thinking to the "experts".
O noes!!!
‘...Warwick school district administrators during a frenetic Wednesday afternoon shared that they are returning to the mask-optional policy...’
last year the Warwick administration foreited the football game to Governor Miffin because four students (none of them football players) tested positive for covid...this weekend Warwick has to play Gov Mifflin again (good luck against the number one team in the state); will the feckless administrators come through again to prevent on field humiliation...?
The court's decision does not impact the federal mandate that masks be worn on public transportation, which includes school buses.
I’m pretty sure that the resident does not have the constitutional authority for his mandate either.
Similar to how we started the year with local control, no one will be criticized for wearing or for not
wearing a mask while in CV school buildings; it is the choice of each individual student and family.
The teacher union will do everything but recommend teaching the kids reading, writing and arithmetic.
i will be making masks out of fishnet stockings. preorder now.
Considering school buses “public” transportation is a stretch. Yes, they run on fixed routes but they are not open to any old Tom, Dick and Harry to board at will.
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