Two more MS Gulf Coast school districts mandate masks for students and employees
When Pass Christian Superintendent Dr. Carla Evers finished listening to the weekly presentation from Mississippi health officials to school superintendents on Friday morning, her mind was made up.
She decided it was time to require students and staff in her districts to wear masks when school starts next week. Previously, the district had planned to only recommend masks.
“[State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs and state epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers] emphatically recommend that staff and students inside a school building wear face coverings,” she said. “That coupled with all of the data that’s out there, with how this delta variant is moving... that raised my concern levels to a higher plane.”
Gulfport School District also announced Friday afternoon that masks will be required for all students and staff starting Monday. The district’s first day of school was July 23, with mask wearing “encouraged, but not required.”
The districts follow Pascagoula-Gautier in switching from recommending masks to requiring them for everyone at school, regardless of vaccination status. Superintendent Wayne Rodolfich announced Pascagoula-Gautier’s new plan on Thursday afternoon.
Under its back-to-school plan released in May, Moss Point School District also plans to require masks for everyone.
Requiring masks is in line with CDC guidance earlier this week that everyone, vaccinated or not, should wear a mask in school settings. It also aligns with Mississippi State Department of Health guidance that everyone should wear masks indoors.
On Friday, Mississippi reported 1,643 new COVID-19 cases. For South Mississippi, that brought the total number of cases since the pandemic began to 50,000.
With Gulfport School District following the year-round model and starting school on July 23, some Coast students already have been back in class.
The state health department has yet to publish data on COVID-19 cases and outbreaks at schools, but department communications director Liz Sharlot told the Sun Herald on Friday that MSDH plans to report that information like it did last year, likely once most schools in the state have opened for the fall.
Unlike last year, Gov. Tate Reeves has made clear he will not mandate masks at schools. That means the decision has fallen to individual districts. On the Coast, most districts are still planning to make masks optional.
