Parents line up to excuse children from West Ada School District’s COVID-19 mask rules
Thousands of parents showed up to the West Ada School District office Wednesday to opt their children out of the mask rules the board passed a night earlier.
Parents and students from Idaho’s largest district stood in a line that wrapped around the building, holding copies of the signed forms that will let their children go to school without a face covering.
The last-minute rush for parents came after the school district’s trustees on Tuesday night passed a new reopening plan — less than 36 hours before the first day of school Thursday. The plan requires that students and staff wear masks, but gives parents the option to opt out their children.
To do that, parents or guardians had to show up to the district office with a photo ID and the opt-out form, a simple document asking for information, including their name and signature, and their children’s names.
Char Jackson, chief communication officer for the district, told the Idaho Statesman at about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday that the district had received 3,754 forms. Parents have to fill out one form per child.
The form also included a note: “The West Ada School District reserves the right to terminate the opt-out option (medical exemptions will still apply) based on school-based health trends,” it read.
Parents waiting to turn in their forms Wednesday afternoon said they were happy the board gave them a choice, but said it was an inconvenience to stand in line.
“I personally think that this whole thing is ridiculous,” said Jessica Gross, who has a child in the district. “I don’t understand sending an email to parents saying it’s required, but, oh, hey, here’s this opt-out form, go ahead and fill it out and then go wait in a line for an hour.”
She said she didn’t think there was anything wrong with the policy the board passed in June, which made masks optional for everyone.
“I kind of figured the school district was going to cave because everybody was making such a big stink about it,” she said. “Turns out, I was right.”
Other districts in the Treasure Valley have also reconsidered their mask policies in recent weeks. The Boise School District earlier this month approved a plan mandating masks when students returned to the classroom. Caldwell High School and two elementary schools in the district will also be requiring masks through Sept. 3, as a precaution, the district said.
Officials have been reacting to a dangerous coronavirus surge in Idaho. The delta variant has been spreading rapidly, to the point that hospital systems and health officials have indicated that they are approaching crisis standards of care being implemented.
The state’s caseload has shot up, as has its positivity rate. Idaho has added more than 1,000 new cases each day this week, as well as 33 deaths, according to the Department of Health and Welfare.
Taylor Johnson, who has a sixth grader in the West Ada district, said he gave his child the choice of whether or not he wanted to opt out of the requirement.
“I’m really glad they did the opt-out,” Johnson said. “I think that was a very wise move on their part. I think there would have been mayhem if they wouldn’t have given that option.”
His son, he said, didn’t like wearing the mask and didn’t see any benefit to it.
Johnson said he was surprised there were so many people there to turn in their forms, but he was glad to see it.
While parents stood in line, Jared Lucas, a parent, held up a sign representing the West Ada Parents Association, which has advocated for a mask-optional policy, and spoke to the crowd every few minutes.
During his time at the district office, he said the line had been nonstop, and he wasn’t surprised.
“It’s a huge signal,” he said. “It’s kind of the ultimate survey.”
The West Ada School District has more than 40,300 students.
The district’s board is representing a conservative population, Lucas said.
“Nationally, conservative people see this issue differently than the other side,” he said. “So I think the school board, where they struggle is they may have different views, but they’re representing a population that has a big majority of conservatives and conservative values. And I think that’s where the tension is.”
Lucas said his biggest concern with the new policy is for the teachers, who are going to have to manage the change.
“I think the teachers were the ones that lost last night, because there’s no fair way, with two days before school to start, for them to somehow start to become quarantine experts and mask wearing experts,” he said.
“And any time that they are forced to dedicate to that, that distracts from the education of our students, I think is sub-optimal.”
Other parents talked about how their children struggled with wearing a mask all day and experienced anxiety, headaches and other negative impacts. They said they welcomed the option to opt out.
The district will be accepting the forms again on Thursday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and on Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., so the number of students who won’t be wearing masks in the classroom is likely to grow.
The board’s policy change Tuesday night came after hearing from two St. Luke’s Health System physicians, who recommended that the district start the year with a mask mandate if their goal was to keep students in school, every day, for the full year. They talked about the surge in COVID-19 cases in the state, its impact on hospital capacity and how transmissible the delta variant is.
“The truth is we’re in trouble,” Dr. Jim Souza of St. Luke’s Health System told the board via video. “And we’re heading for some choppier waters.”
Hundreds of people attended the board meeting, the vast majority of whom were dressed in yellow to show support for a mask-optional policy. During the meeting, people spoke emotionally on both sides of the mask issue, with many parents arguing that deserved a choice, and others calling masks a key tool to keep students and staff safe amid a surge of COVID-19 cases.
This story was originally published August 25, 2021 at 6:49 PM.
