The alarming surge in the delta variant scuttled superintendents' well-laid reopening plans and turned what’s typically a joyful time into a political maelstrom. A kindergarten teacher instructs students on Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021, during the first day of school at Washington Elementary School in Riviera Beach.
As roughly a quarter of America's public school students headed back to school this week, the contentious debate over whether to require students, educators and staff to wear masks while at school – and the one unfolding over whether to mandate corona virus vaccines for educators and school staff – turned what's typically a joyful time for educators, parents and children into a political maelstrom. With children under 12 not yet eligible for vaccines, the alarming surge in the delta variant scuttled superintendents' well-laid reopening plans, returned some students to virtual learning, pitted parents, public health officials and school leaders against each other and sent the Biden administration scrambling to get families vaccinated as it becomes clear that's the only way schools will be able to stay open consistently.
On one side, states and school districts reinstituted K-12 masks mandates, including in Louisiana, New Jersey, Illinois and Kentucky. California became the first state to mandate vaccines for educators and school staff, a policy already in place in New York City, Denver and Washington, D.C., and one that the government's top infectious disease expert backed this week. "I know people must like to have their individual freedom and not be told to do something, but I think we're in such a serious situation now that, under certain circumstances, mandates should be done," Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said.
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