Clovis school board gives anti-mask parents a victory. But it was a poor lesson for kids

The Clovis Unified Governing Board just could not wait a few more days to get rid of its mask-mandate for students.

Never mind that come Monday, or at most within the week, California public health officials will announce new guidance when it comes to masking up at schools to protect from COVID infections.

With its “do what’s best for the students” mantra, the Clovis board voted unanimously to allow students to remain in a classroom even if they refuse to mask up.

Technically, the board policy continues to adhere to state requirements that all students are to be masked. If a child shows up without one, the teacher can offer a mask. If the student refuses to put one on, parents will be notified about noncompliance.

But, in a new move, the unmasked student will not be ordered to leave the classroom. Until Wednesday, when the board passed the new policy, unmasked students had to exit classes and head to a designated room on campus where all the other unmasked kids for that day were gathered. A teacher or other staff had the duty to oversee their lessons until the final bell rang.

The board said Clovis Unified will continue to enforce the masking requirement through education — such as posting the mandate on each campus, encouraging observance of the requirement, and notifying parents in writing of noncompliance.

But in reality, many students will choose not to wear masks. Given the capacity crowd that showed up at the board meeting, many parents don’t want their children to wear masks, either. The board is splitting hairs to give the parents what they want.

Improving conditions

In fairness to the Clovis school board, COVID conditions have improved steadily from the wintertime peak brought on by the omicron variant. The number of COVID cases in Clovis for kids up to age 19 have dropped 34% in the last month, according to Fresno County public health.

The county’s overall positivity rate is half of what it was just two weeks ago.

The zip codes that make up Clovis and northeast Fresno have among the highest vaccination rates in the county.

And 0.0033% of Clovis Unified students are testing positive for the virus. The number is also small for the staff: 0.001 %.

Clovis Unified has also been aggressive about adding air purifiers and filtration systems at its campuses.

Gov. Gavin Newsom felt confident enough about state COVID trends that he made Feb. 15 the last day of the indoor-masking requirement for vaccinated people.

Statewide opt out

That said, Clovis Unified joins a growing list of school districts statewide choosing to allow students into classrooms without masks.

Reopen California Schools, an online social media campaign, has tallied more than 20 districts now offering what it calls “mask choice.”

Besides Clovis Unified, other districts in the San Joaquin Valley that have adopted mask-choice policies are Sierra Unified in the Fresno County foothills; Golden Valley Unified in Madera; and Immanuel Schools, a private program in Reedley.

Lessons learned?

Given more districts in California are adopting mask-choice policies, one could argue that it is high time for the state to put schools on the same footing as everything else.

Two points: First, the state is likely about to do that very thing.

And second, schools are not like everywhere else. California’s young people get entrusted to teachers and school staff to instruct and keep them from harm throughout the school day.

For most of the last year, parents crowded into Clovis Unified meetings to complain about schools being closed due to the pandemic. Once campuses reopened, the parents complained about students having to wear masks.

It is hard to know just how large this group has been. But they are a minority when it comes to Californians overall.

A poll by the Los Angeles Times and UC Berkeley that was just released found that two-thirds of Californians — including a majority of parents — continue to support mask and vaccine mandates in schools.

Some of these Clovis anti-mask parents instructed their children — some as young as kindergartners — to refuse their teachers’ request to put on a mask.

The danger in that, of course, is that young people learn how to defy authority. Is that “doing the best for our children?”

This story was originally published February 25, 2022 at 5:00 AM.