January 27, 2022
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Suspended for not wearing mask

Governor Glen Youngkin’s  executive order preventing school systems from requiring masks took effect Monday. Both local school boards chose to keep their mask mandates in spite of the Governor’s order.  Statewide 25 school divisions continued to require masks while approximately 105 school divisions chose to allowed parents to choose what’s best for their children.

Apparently Eastern Shore students face stiffer penalties than those in some other areas of the state.

The Accomack County School Board voted to continue the mandates. On Monday, an Arcadia Middle School student was suspended for five days for not wearing a mask.  The student’s parents, seeking to address what they felt was an injustice, purchased ads on WESR to bring to light what may happen to others.

The Accomack County School Board held a budget meeting at Metompkin Elementary School Tuesday night.  Approximately 20 people showed up, some with signs, to protest the action.  Since there was no public comment period scheduled for the budget workshop, no one was permitted to speak.

In Northampton the penalty is not quite as severe as it is in Accomack.   Superintendent Eddie Lawrence said that Northampton’s policy is to offer the student a mask and if the student refuses, he or she is released to their parents.  In Northampton, the student can return if he or she agrees to wear a mask.

In both counties,  it’s mask up or go home.

Elsewhere in the state, one school system has  provided other accommodations to students choosing not to mask up.

Quoting an article from the Associated Press, “the day seemed to unfold in most schools without mass chaos. In northern Virginia’s Loudoun County, no students were sent home Monday morning for defying the mask order, said Wayde Byard, a school district spokesperson.

Coldwell Banker Harbour Realty

Those who refused to wear masks were routed to school auditoriums where they could do virtual work through the school’s online platform, he said. Lunch periods were adjusted to ensure maskless students would receive lunch, he said.

At Woodgrove High School, for example, about 30 students out of more than 1,400 refused to wear masks. Four or five parents opted to pull their children. The rest stayed at the school, isolated from masked peers, he said.”

The article goes on to say that while there were some angry parents, the principals were able to defuse the situations.

Lawrence said there were two students whose parents pulled them out of the Northampton school system Monday and that because of multiple factors, it is very difficult to find substitute teachers to cover existing classes.

Pep Up

The situation may be temporary pending the outcome of legal action challenging the Governor’s executive order.  Also it is predicted that the Omicron version of the coronavirus should start fading out in the next few weeks.

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