This article is one of a series of articles produced by The Seattle Medium through support provided by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to Word In Black, a collaborative of 10 Black-owned media outlets across the country.
By Aaron Allen
The Seattle Medium
Last week, under the guidance of health officials, Seattle Public Schools (SPS) lifted its mask requirements for in-person learning. While masking will now be optional, the district welcomes and encourages staff and students to continue mask wearing through the end of the year, if that is their preference.
The district dropped the mandate as COVID-19 cases continue to fall in King County. However, the district maintains that they will continue to monitor COVID rates in the district, and that “there may be times when we will need to bring back effective mitigations if there is an increase in community, classroom, or school wide transmission.”
The policy change by SPS sparked a protest held by students outside of the district’s headquarters on Monday, and has parents, who are concerned about new COVID variants, wondering how long this new policy will last.
The protest, organized by the newly formed the Seattle Student Union, saw an estimated 100 students from Chief Sealth, Roosevelt, Franklin, Lincoln high schools, and other students from all over the district, along with parents and supporters, gather outside the district’s main office urging SPS Superintendent Brent Jones to re-instate mask mandates in the schools.
“In order for everybody to be safe we should compromise. Hear each other’s voices and respect it,” said Camille Gacer, a sophomore at Lincoln High School and member of the Seattle Student Union.
“It is absolutely maddening,” says Marigold Wong, a sophomore at Franklin High school. “We have to take time away from our education to fight for safety and health.”
The issue has, once again, put many parents in the difficult position of having to make decisions regarding the education of their children and protecting the health and welfare of their family at the same time.
“Everybody has been basically shooting from the hip,” says Jo Woods, a former manager at the Port of Seattle. “We have been trying to figure it all out together. There hasn’t been a lot of information, our school district has been taking their cues from the governor.”
Although masking has been an integral part of combating COVID, many parents like Woods claims that she has mixed feeling about the use of masks in schools.
“[My son] personally doesn’t enjoy wearing mask,” says Woods. “He and some friends got into some trouble for taking their mask off when they weren’t supposed to, but we got through it.”
“I am fine with masking. However, if he chooses not to wear them, I support my son’s decisions,” Woods reveals. “I also think that mask can be a health risk. In the beginning they had to wear masks even outside. The basketball team had to work out in masks. I would have rather they canceled the season then to have these kids breathing in fibers while working out, but as a community, I was also an advocate of the mandate if it could help us overcome this.”
Christine Young, an educator and parent of a child with pre-existing conditions, says that she will continue to have her family wear masks.
“With masking period, we don’t know all of the logistics, we are not scientist, so it is important to just do our part in relation to masking,” says Young. “I want to slim my, my child’s and my students’ chances of becoming sick or dying by wearing the mask.”
