On March 14, the Seattle Public Schools lifted its mask mandate, making face masks optional for students and staff. This announcement follows a similar decision by the governor’s office to end mask requirements for most indoor settings in Washington state.
The masking decision comes in the wake of the Omicron surge, which saw coronavirus cases rise to record levels in King County. In January, the school district agreed to a number of student demands around COVID-19 safety, including providing N95 masks and administering tests and vaccines at school. In light of the recent decline in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, the school district struck a hopeful tone, stating in the announcement that “we are grateful that brighter and healthier days are ahead of us.”
However, to the students who campaigned for the COVID-19 safety measures, the decision to make face masks optional comes as a slap in the face. Natalya McConnell, a sophomore at Franklin High School and member of the Seattle Student Union, said that making masks optional undermines the district’s COVID-19 safety measures.
“The district is actually going back on our demands. Everything that we won, that we fought for, now we’re losing again,” McConnell said.
According to McConnell, the majority of students supported the mask mandate and disagreed with the district’s decision.
“A lot of people were just angry,” she said. “Someone told me that they weren’t going to come to school on Monday because they don’t feel safe.”
Similar sentiments were shared by many teachers and staff, including the Seattle Education Association. The union condemned the district’s decision, saying that it violated an agreement between the school district and the union to negotiate changes in coronavirus safety protocols. In a statement, the union said “the District cannot unilaterally ignore an agreed-upon [memorandum of understanding], and now is leaving educators scrambling with just days before lifting the mask mandate … Clearly, SPS misled us.”
Most staff said that they would continue to wear masks at schools, according to a teacher at Meany Middle School who wished to remain anonymous. While making face masks optional could benefit certain classes, such as band and world languages, the teacher said that many of the staff were unhappy with the sudden nature of the announcement.
“The way that it was done — to release it Wednesday and to not honor our contract — feels really awful [and] dishonest,” they said.
The teacher also thought that the unilateral nature of the decision undermined the collective bargaining process between teachers and the school district.
“This is a union-busting tactic,” they said.
McConnell says that members of the Seattle Student Union who sit on the Superintendent’s Youth Advisory Board were also not consulted on the masking decision. The group is planning to stage a walkout on March 21 unless the district agrees to reinstate the mask mandate.
In an email to Real Change, a spokesperson for Seattle Public Schools said that the district is aware of the Seattle Education Association’s concerns and had been in discussions with them about the issue before the decision was made. The decision to make mask wearing optional was in line with public health agency guidance, the spokesperson added.
Guy Oron is the staff reporter for Real Change. You can find him on Twitter @GuyOron.
Guy Oron is the staff reporter for Real Change. He handles coverage of our weekly news stories. Find them on Twitter, @GuyOron.
Read more of the Mar. 16-22, 2022 issue.