GASTONIA, N.C. — The school board got a standing ovation after the vote. It was unanimous — the Gaston County Board of Education voted 9-0 Tuesday to not require face masks for any students or staff.
Gaston County, just west of Charlotte, joined more than a dozen counties that have already rejected coronavirus guidelines from the state Department of Health and Human Services, according to the North Carolina School Boards Association.
“People have the information and can decide for themselves what to do about their children, whether to wear a mask or not,” board member Kevin Collier said to applause from the parents and others in the room.
The new recommendations from the state, released last week, say students and staff in elementary and middle schools should wear masks indoors. Unvaccinated high school students and staff should also be required to wear masks inside, the StrongSchools toolkit says.
Just before the school board meeting Tuesday, federal officials went further and said schools should require everyone to wear masks when indoors, whether or not they’re vaccinated.
But the governor left it up to each of North Carolina’s 116 school districts to decide for themselves whether or not to require kids to mask-up in school. The statewide mask mandate will expire at the end of the month.
School board votes are showing the divide in North Carolina over masks.
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As the Gaston County board met Tuesday evening to reject masks in schools, up Interstate 85 in Greensboro, the Guilford County Board of Education made the opposite decision. Guilford County board members voted to adopt the state recommendations.
On Monday, Elkin City Schools, a small district between Winston-Salem and Wilkesboro, voted to require masks for all grades, going beyond the state’s recommendations. The district said it would review the mask rules monthly at its regular board meetings.
Most of the state’s largest school districts, including Wake and Mecklenburg, have not met yet to debate the guidelines. But each school district will have to decide before the new year starts in August for most schools.
At the Gaston County school board Tuesday, people gathered before the meeting outside the low-slung brick building, some carrying handmade signs saying “Unmask our kids” and “No more masks.”
Only about 50 people were allowed in the meeting room because of social distancing guidelines. More people stood in the hallways outside of the meeting room. Almost nobody in the crowd wore a mask, but members of the school board and staff did.
As the meeting started, one member said the only reason he was wearing a mask was because they’re still required on school property.
The special meeting was called to make a decision on masks in the classroom, and most of the speakers were against any mask requirements.
“Our nation is built off of freedoms, not mandates,” Shannon Williams told the board. He said he had a 5th grader in Gaston schools and another child who graduated from the county school system. “Parents know their children, and they should be able to choose what is best for their child.”
“No more masks, no more mandates. Free our children and give our parents the ability to choose,” he said. “Playing soccer in a field wearing a mask? Have we lost our minds?”
The crowd applauded each person who spoke against masks in the classroom.
The county’s public health director, Steve Eaton, said Gaston County is once again seeing cases increase as the more-contagious Delta variant spreads across the state. He said the new variant is responsible for more than 80% of cases in the county.
“Two weeks ago, we were averaging in the low single digits, and when I say ‘low single digits,’ like one or two. Now, we’re seeing daily cases around 40 to 60 per day, and we’re expecting that to increase,” Eaton said.
He said the Delta variant and the county’s low vaccination rate are contributing to increasing case numbers.
“We have three very safe and effective vaccines that are available,” Eaton said, to quiet laughter from some in the crowd.
Less than 40% of Gaston County has had at least one vaccine shot, compared to more than 50% for the state as a whole, according to DHHS data. About 15% of 12 to 17-year-olds in Gaston County have gotten vaccinated, Eaton said.
He recommended the school board adopt the state’s guidelines on requiring masks.
Not all the speakers Tuesday night were against masks.
“This is not an infringement on anyone’s rights, this is a public health crisis,” one parent said. “The delta variant is easily spread and this will accelerate the pandemic.”
“Some students live with family members that have compromised immune systems and cannot afford to take the risk of the student bringing home their germs,” she said. “A child not wearing a mask is more than a risk to the student.”
Before the new school year starts in August, each of North Carolina's 116 school boards will have to make their own call on whether or not to require masks in the classroom and just what those rules will be. There's sure to be plenty of heated debate at school board meetings across the state in the coming weeks.