Governor Ducey and Director Christ just summarily eliminated a previous executive order that had required K-12 schools to have mask policies in place for students, teachers, staff and visitors. As of today, schools MAY have a mask mandate policy but it is no longer required.
That means that schools will need to individually keep and defend any mask requirement that they currently have in place. Many schools will drop their requirements. Those that keep their policies will have worse adherence.
In the opening statement of their media release that announces this foolish change, Director Christ and Governor Ducey state that:
In alignment with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance, Governor Doug Ducey and the Arizona Department of Health Services today rescinded orders that direct K-12 schools to require masks.
That statement is a lie and they know it. CDC’s guidance and recommendations for schools makes it clear that they urge schools to use “universal and correct usage of masks” in the K-12 school setting”.
These two are really a piece of work. They couldn’t even wait for the remainder of the school year to finish with the existing mask policies in place. Instead, they made mask wearing at schools optional with only 23 more days of school left in most districts.
They have really made some tremendously bad policy decisions over the last year. Now we can add another one to the list.
Editorial Note: Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman found out about this move only moments before Director Christ and Governor Ducey issued their press release announcing the Edict. Director Christ would have known about this for days, and yet failed to have the common courtesy to give Superintendent Hoffman a heads up.
Actually, common courtesy would have consisted of actually CONSULTING with Superintendent Hoffman before they issued this edict.
Shameful.