St. Tammany Parish Public Schools Superintendent Frank Jabbia faced pushback from anti-mask mandate parents at Thursday’s parish school board meeting.
It comes just days before students return to the classroom for the start of the school year.
“We played along last year. We masked up our children but no more. Not only is this depriving them of air, it is depriving them of social interactions they desperately need at this age. This is destroying our children mentally,” said one angry parent.
St. Tammany Parish schools require children age five years old and older to wear a mask in the classroom.
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At the meeting, Superintendent Jabbia was frustrated as he pleaded with the protesting parents to reconsider and follow the state mask mandate, which extends to children in the classroom.
“At this point in time, this is a mandate from the Governor that we’ve got to follow. We have no choice but to follow. So, I’m begging parents, I’m pleading with parents, please give our teachers a chance,” Jabbia said.
At the meeting, Jabbia outlined the changes to the school board’s COVID guidelines for students in the classroom. Those measures include students are allowed to socially distance only three feet instead of six feet so long as they wear a mask.
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He says if students are masked, and remain three feet apart, then there will be no need to self-quarantine which led to many students missing class lessons last year.
However, the idea of young children wearing masks all day did not sit well with parents.
“If you are a parent afraid of your kid getting COVID, and you think masks really work, then you should be able to have your child wear a mask. But if you’re a parent who isn’t afraid, that should be your choice to have your kid go to school without one,” said another parent.
Another parent, who said she was a registered nurse called the mask mandate “communism”.
Meantime, doctors at Children’s Hospital report they are seeing an alarming number of children hospitalized more than before, due to the spreading Delta Variant.
The state mask mandate now applies to everyone regardless if they are vaccinated or not.