Just after midnight, early in the morning of Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021, the Douglas County School Board, by a vote of 4-3, has eliminated the mask mandate for all students and staff in the district. The decision came after hours of public comment, board questions, and debate.

According to the resolution, the removal of the mask mandate will take effect immediately. Students and staff may continue to wear masks if they would like, but they will no longer be required to. For the students and staff who wish to not want to wear a mask, they do not have to seek an exemption.

“Unless otherwise required by federal, state, or local law and/or public health order, there shall be no District policy requiring universal mandatory masking of students or staff, nor shall any individual school in the District enact its own universal mandatory mask policy,” reads the resolution. 

The elimination of the mask mandate comes shortly after the election of four new school board members, who ran on removing the mask mandate and giving parents more choice in how the school board is run.

“I truly believe no one knows their child better than a parent. They want their children in school. They want the choice to opt [sic] to mask or not, to vaccinate or not.” said Becky Myers, newly elected school board member. “This is our freedom and we’re going to choose, so I’m voting yes to the resolution.”

DCSD’s mask mandate has been the source of controversy for a long time within Douglas County. The county government broke away from Tri-County Health, established their own health department, and allowed for students to file an exemption to the DCSD mandate. The district sued the health department, obtained a restraining order, and then later mutually squashed the case. Now, the mask mandate which started all of this controversy is gone.

Also contained in the resolution is a ban on any sort of COVID vaccine mandate, “Unless otherwise required by federal, state, or local law and/or public health order, there shall be no District policy requiring a COVID-specific universal vaccine mandate for District students or staff.”

“I think it’s a bit early to be taking actions like this, especially considering that the country still only has about a 60% vaccination rate,” said Mason Young, senior.  “Keeping the mask mandate, something we’ve been doing for almost 2 years, wouldn’t impact anybody that greatly.”

Anthony Kargoll, Podcast Editor