Harrison County School District gives more details on COVID-19 mask policy
Harrison County School District announced a detailed mask policy on Facebook Monday, as part of its reopening plan requiring all students to wear masks at school.
Masks will be required for students and staff at all times, except when social distancing can be maintained. Acceptable face coverings include cloth masks, handmade masks that adhere to CDC guidelines, disposable masks, and face shields with a mask underneath. Bandanas and scarves, and anything that doesn’t adhere to the district dress code, are not acceptable.
As districts around the Coast announce reopening plans, mask policies have been a key point of variation and contention. Some districts, such as Moss Point and Pascagoula-Gautier, are requiring students to wear masks at all times. Others, including Hancock County, Long Beach and Jackson County, have made masks optional.
Harrison County’s policy, requiring masks when social distancing is impossible, is similar to Pass Christian’s.
The CDC recommends that everyone over the age of 2 years old wear a mask in public. Because COVID-19 can be spread by people who do not show symptoms, the CDC says that mask wearing for everyone is important to slowing the spread of the virus.
In Harrison County, parents have criticized the district for providing a distance learning option only for students for whom it is a medical necessity, and requiring reapproval every 15 days.
But in an illustration of the competing pressures facing school districts, the announcement of the mask policy on Facebook drew similarly frustrated responses. Some parents said it was unrealistic for kids to wear masks all day, and others felt the mandatory mask-wearing was an inadequate attempt at keeping students safe without making more significant changes to schools.
