Over the last three weeks protests against California’s school mask mandate have grown exponentially, and the response from administrators has generally been horrible – from “barricading” high school students in a gym, to leaving elementary school students alone and without a coat outdoors to do their schoolwork, to telling parents that if they drop their children off at school without a mask CPS would be called for child abandonment.

The excuse used by administrators is that their hands are tied by the California Department of Public Health’s “requirement” that students in all K-12 schools in the state wear masks (pulled up over their noses) indoors. CDPH leaves it to individual districts to enforce the requirement, though, and to recognize exemptions. As I wrote two weeks ago, a handful of districts had informally made masks optional but hadn’t written out the policy because they feared the wrath of the California Department of Education, CalOSHA, and CDPH.

The state’s indoor mask mandate expired February 15 – except in schools. According to Dr. Mark Ghaly, California’s HHS Secretary, the state agencies need at least two weeks to “prepare” for the change. On February 14, responding to parent outrage after the Super Bowl was held in Los Angeles in front of 70,000 fans defying the state and local mask mandates, he said:

“Today, a change isn’t being made but in two weeks, confirming that the data continues to be where it is, taking the time to prepare and work with the school community and communities-at-large, we anticipate making the change,” Ghaly said.

Now, facing louder and larger protests, two California school districts have changed their student masking policies. El Dorado Union High School District announced a “Significant Change in Student Masking Enforcement” through a February 15 press release.

With the lifting of the statewide indoor mandate, and the improving conditions within El Dorado County, the El Dorado Union High School District is implementing a significant change in its face-covering enforcement protocols.

We are caught in the middle of a very difficult and progressively escalating situation where we acknowledge our obligation to comply with State and California Department of Public Health mandates and our actual ability to enforce those mandates.

Therefore we are changing our masking enforcement protocols. The enforcement of masking will be done by educating students and asking them to mask but no further actions of exclusion from class will be taken.

We will continue to do our best to comply with the law. Our school liability carriers all warn us that if we take explicit action to defy State guidance we will be held liable and accountable for any such decisions and in a very litigious society we have no legal protection. Our liability carriers will not be held accountable for our willful defiance of the California Department of Public Health.

The district is carefully wording its policy to make clear that they are only changing their method of enforcement and technically it’s still a requirement for students to wear masks due to their fear of being sued by parents whose students allegedly get COVID at school due to students not wearing masks.

This protest spurred the action:

Roseville Joint Unified High School District officials voted last week to end the mask mandate in their district effective February 15. That district’s superintendent says they’re in the clear legally, though:

“Be it further resolved by the Roseville Joint Union High School District Board of Trustees recommends, regardless of vaccination status, personal and parent choice with respect to whether or not children, staff and teachers should wear face coverings while at school commencing when the state indoor mask mandated is lifted,” the resolution said.

The Roseville policy states that masking is a “choice for students,” Superintendent Becker said in an email. “We have been legally advised that (the health department) does not require that individuals, such as teachers or school staff, enforce the mandate and therefore, cannot be held liable,” he added.

Most districts are asking parents to direct their ire at the state and not individual districts, because the state isn’t allowing local autonomy. El Dorado Union High School District’s press release closed with:

We ask for your continued support as we seek to do our best in this time when we are not granted any local control and Sacramento holds all of the decision making authority. As a school district the Board of Trustees does not have the legal decision making authority to change, overturn, or ignore State requirements. We know that masking guidance will definitely change in the weeks to come but our enforcement will change immediately.