California’s indoor masking rule might soon have an expiration date – at least for the more than 8,200 high school students in Brentwood.
The Liberty Union High School District in Brentwood is considering defying the governor’s school masking mandate and leaving that choice up to kids.
“I know a lot of us are getting fed up with wearing it all the time especially now that it's getting hotter and everything,” said Liberty High School Senior Kaili Johnson.
The board of trustees asked Superintendent Erick Volta to look into how the district can stop enforcing the state’s school masking mandate.
“I’ve talked to two or three superintendents who have gone down this route and getting their insight as far as preparations for next steps,” said Volta.
The Roseville Joint Unified High School District, and half a dozen other smaller districts, have already gone down that road. And all now risk losing liability insurance over the decision to defy state masking rules.
According to a new poll out from UC Berkeley on COVID and schools, 74% of Bay Area parents approved requiring mask-wearing in schools, the highest approval rate in all California regions
“My daughter she’s pretty fed up with it and whatnot and she tries not to wear it as much as possible,” said Sarah Burnside of Brentwood.
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Erick Stoneberger is the president of the district’s board of trustees and is a father of four.
“None of them are very good at wearing a mask. It has a significant aspect on their social interactions. I think their learning ability for certain,” said Stoneberger.
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Superintendent Volta says depending on what happens at Monday's meeting, administrators and teachers may finally get relief from enforcing a rule that only applies to children in schools. While adults can already walk into many places without one.
“Trying to explain how certain large venues on TV watched by millions of viewers where there is a supposed mask mandate is not being enforced but we’re going enforcing it here,” said Volta.
