Lincoln Public Schools implemented a mask mandate this week. Now the members of Omaha metro area schools and associations want other districts to follow suit.
A letter from education associations in Bellevue, Millard, Omaha, Papillion-La Vista, Ralston and Westside are requesting the implementation of a city-wide mask mandate. The groups sent a letter to the city councils in Bellevue, La Vista, Papillion, Ralston and Omaha stating metro area school districts are not responding to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in the same way. The letter states:
“Regardless of whether our districts are requiring masks, or simply recommending them, we all agree that it will take more than the health and safety protocols in our schools alone to get COVID under control. Our students and staff do not spend every hour in our buildings. We need strong mitigation efforts that impact the entirety of our community, not just our school buildings, if we are going to keep our students and staff safe and our schools open for in-person learning. That is why we are collectively asking you to establish a mask mandate as quickly as possible.”
“The fact is that masks work. According to a study by the Duke University School of Medicine, which was shared in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, when there are documented cases of close contact and both individuals are masked, virtually no transmission takes place. This data is particularly relevant to our community because the researchers came to their conclusions studying cases right here in the Omaha metro area. They tracked more than 5,600 quarantines during the 2020-21 school year in Millard Public Schools, and of those nearly six thousand close contacts there were only TWO instances of transmission.1 The evidence right here in our own community speaks to the power of masks.”
The letter goes on to say that the Omicron variant now accounts for the majority of cases in the community and all of the best guidance indicates that a combination of universal masking and high vaccination rates is the right approach. The letter goes on to say that it is imperative that city council members act on this. This issue cannot be left to schools to implement mitigation policies.
The districts involved are asking for a mask mandate until the testing infrastructure can be improved to meet the needs of the community. Right now, people are waiting for hours to get tested and that is creating a backlog. It is also discouraging others from getting tested.
The letter states:
“In addition to the health and safety concerns we have for our students and colleagues, we are concerned about workforce shortages. Our case count is higher now than at any other point in the pandemic. Even with the recent CDC change that reduced isolation periods for individuals without symptoms, we fear there is a real possibility we will have staffing shortages in the near future. There are already significant concerns about having access to an adequate number of substitute teachers, and we fear that absent a universal mask mandate we could be looking at classroom and school closures, which we all know would be incredibly disruptive to the families of our community.”