Boston school officials are asking students and staff to voluntarily wear face masks for eight days upon their return after New Year's Day.
Superintendent Mary Skipper made the request, which falls short of a mask mandate, on Friday, despite requests from some parents and activists for stronger measures.
"We've seen the impacts of significant staffing shortages, student absences, and the loss of critical learning time, so, we are asking our school communities to wear masks temporarily," Skipper said in a statement. "While this is not a mandate, we’re really leaning on everyone to work together to follow our temporary protocol to ensure we are collectively doing our part to mitigate the risk of exposure for our students and staff in an effort to keep everyone safe as best we can."
Mask-wearing will help reduce not only the spread of COVID-19, but also the flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and other respiratory illnesses, Skipper said, noting that Black and brown families make up the majority of the district's students and have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus. She said 60% of all flu cases in Boston have been among 17-year-olds and younger.
The idea of having to put a mask back on is wearying to some students.
Seventeen-year-old Fedalys Matos of Dorchester said she's going to wait and see how many of her friends and classmates are getting sick at Madison Park Technical Vocational High School. Masks chafe and are uncomfortable, she said, in addition to being a reminder her of how worried she was during the early days of the pandemic nearly three years ago.
"For right now I won't wear it, but if I see that the situation is really bad, I could later on start using it," Matos said.
Lakshmi Ganapathi, a member of Families for COVID Safety and a parent of a BPS kindergartener, said she's skeptical the district's request will succeed at getting many students and staff to wear masks. She believes few will view the request as more than a suggestion, although she hopes they will.
"Kids are coming back from break, we're seeing the COVID wastewater levels rise in Boston, and really, it's a no brainer, if you ask me, to do a finite period of masking," Ganapathi said.
A practicing doctor, she said 300-400 people are still dying from COVID-19 on average daily, and hospitals are facing dramatic swells in patients seeking medical help. The latest data from the Massachusetts Department of Health shows a more than 30% increase in hospitalizations in the past two weeks.
Skipper said by encouraging masks, she's trying to prevent a repeat of last January, when the district experienced its largest COVID-19 spike of the pandemic, resulting in 8,500 student and 1,200 staff absences.
The request to mask extends to buses too, she said, and will be in effect from Jan. 4 through Jan. 13. Teachers are asked to mask on Jan. 3 when they return a day earlier than students.
The Boston Teachers Union issued a statement Friday afternoon, calling the request "sensible" after an initial review.
District officials said no one would be disciplined or sent home if they refused to wear a mask, a subject that has led to protests at the State House and Department of Elemenary and Secondary Education meetings in recent years, as well as protests at the home of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
Masks will be provided to all students who want them.
