After emergency meeting, Haywood Schools still won’t require masks

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After emergency meeting, Haywood Schools still won’t require masks

Chairman Chuck Francis HCS

Almost three weeks after controversially voting to start the school year with optional masks for students, the Haywood County Schools Board of Education held an emergency meeting Aug. 13 and issued a strong statement asking students to mask up – but stopped short of calling for a mask mandate.

“While masking is still a choice, the Haywood County Schools Board of Education, Haywood County Health and Human Services and Haywood County Schools administration strongly recommend the use of masks in indoor settings at this time,” said Chairman Chuck Francis during the meeting. “Masking is also requested at outdoor events if social distancing is not possible.”

This unanimous board vote comes after a July 27 meeting where Natasha Bright, parent of an HCS student, was one of two people to speak in favor of masks. She returned on Aug. 9, and presented a petition with more than 600 signatories asking for universal masking to start the school year. By the time of the Aug. 13 emergency school board meeting, which was held both live and by video, the number of signers had grown to nearly 800.

Haywood County becomes the latest local school district to reconsider its stance on masking in the face of rising COVID-19 numbers.

Earlier on Aug. 13, Buncombe County voted to make masks mandatory for everyone, after originally allowing people who’d been vaccinated to choose whether or not to wear masks on Aug. 5. Congressman Madison Cawthorn, R-Henderson, showed up to that meeting, calling masks “psychological child abuse” and telling school board members that they ought to be ashamed of themselves.

In Henderson County, Cawthorn’s home county, school board members had voted 5-2 on Aug. 2 to make masks optional, but on Aug. 9 voted 6-1 to make them mandatory.