FCPS Masking Update
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
yeah... I'm getting suspicious about FCPS again. At first I read it as begrudgingly accepting the finality of the new law. But, after reading the Wash Post article today, they (Post) seems to think FCPS is hedging. Apparently FCPS refused to answer a direct question about whether masking would be optional Mar. 1st. It's SOOO stupid to dig their heels in at this point! We are down to about 12 new daily cases per 100k people! We are the best in the state (lowest number of cases per capita). I think FCPS is expecting CDC to give new rules and then FCPS will send out a new announcement saying that they are following CDC. FCPS is being very bull-headed. Insisting that they are right in principle, yet ignoring the reality on the ground. And that Va ACLU lawyer quoted in the Wash Post article -- wants to know what disabled kids who need universal masking are supposed to do. Ummm... madam atty, if a kid "needs universal masking" then they are not safe in a public setting. You can't expect the world to bubble-wrap themselves just because you are so fragile. From the article: The final plaintiff in the suit, Fairfax County Public Schools, whose roughly 179,000 students make it the largest district in the state, is still requiring masks for now — and it is not clear when the mask mandate will lift. In a message to families Friday, Superintendent Scott Brabrand did not directly say whether the district would comply with the law. ... A Fairfax spokeswoman on Friday did not answer a question asking whether parents in the county will be allowed to opt out of masking on March 1. ... In Arlington Public Schools, which enrolls about 27,000 students, officials presented a slide show to the school board Thursday night, writing in a footnote that masks will become optional March 1. ... “APS will continue to require* masks inside our schools to keep schools as safe as possible,” it said. At the bottom of the slide in tiny italic print came the follow-up: “*Senate Bill 739 allows parents to elect for their child to opt out of wearing a mask at school beginning March 1.” In a later slide, Arlington officials wrote that masking indoors is still recommended by the CDC and that “we have students and staff who have underlying health conditions, are immunocompromised, and are considered high risk.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/02/18/virginia-districts-relaxing-mask-rules/ |
Anonymous
Yes, this is what we have seen at our Catholic which has allowed students to unmask. The peers are unmasked all weekend long but too afraid to unmask at school. They assume the teachers and admin don't want them to unmask, will hold it against them, and think they are a bad person. Its sad. |
Anonymous
I’m coming to dislike Miyares quite a bit, but am also pro-mask optional on March 1 (or anytime now). He’ll fight FCPS on this. https://www.insidenova.com/news/arlington/attorney-general-expects-localities-to-comply-in-full-with-new-mask-law/article_66bc19d6-90c3-11ec-b461-3faa4806d3ae.html Plus there is already a lawsuit against FCPS about the EO, Loudoun style, from some families that decided to unmask after the EO. It’s not what I would do, but there’s a chance that one ends the way Loudoun’s did - parents win, district loses. |
Anonymous
Lawsuit doc link? |
Anonymous
I didn’t have an opinion on Miyares before this but he’s so right: “ In his remarks to the radio station, Miyares said Democratic leaders in Virginia seem incapable of moving forward in working to balance concerns about COVID with other student-health issues. “They’re kind of stuck in an ideological straitjacket they can’t get themselves out of, and our kids are suffering,” |
Anonymous
It’s all about politics. The local school boards had no issue with any of Northam’s EO, the most egregious of which required private schools to instate universal masking. That was for public school systems, like FCPS, who was(is) hemorrhaging students fleeing to privates. |
Anonymous
| I would guess refusal to follow state law could open FCPS up to civil liability, and their lawyers will advise against it (if permitted to even advise). Maybe the message is just a last ditch muscle flex, like an empty threat. |
Anonymous
It’s a something that’s not worth anything to most epip at this point. If you are vulnerable by all means wear an n95. Have your kid wear one. The rest of us will keep our kids home when sick, wash hands, vaccinate and move on already. |
Anonymous
| I am a teacher and want to be mask free March 1. I hope they don’t continue to make us mask. They said no to the principals but some seem to think they mean “no masks until we reach our thresholds.” |
Anonymous
Same here, but if you read the statement that PWCS’s superintendent put out, she explains why employees will continue to be required to mask. I assume FCPS will have to follow the same. ES Teacher |
Anonymous
FCPS will probably have to follow the same: Employees of PWCS are subject to the Virginia Infectious Disease standard under the Virginia Department of Labor, which requires employers, by law, to have all employees, both vaccinated and unvaccinated, wear masks in times of high and substantial community transmission. As PWCS is currently in high community transmission, all PWCS employees must continue to wear masks. Per the current Virginia Administrative Code, volunteers working in classrooms or with students will follow employee masking requirements. PWCS will adjust these requirements should the law change. |
Anonymous
| I have a k student and I really hope they allow teachers to make their own choice soon. It would mean so much to my daughter to see her teacher’s face. |
Anonymous
| I hope the lawsuits are ready to fly if FCPS decides to play games on March 1st and keeps its head up its butt. I know the VA AG is raring to go. |
Anonymous
VDH is talking about dropping that rule, though state union groups are flipping out over that. And CDC is talking about changing metrics, which might make it easier to meet. No guarantees though. |
Anonymous
This is the one against FCPS on the basis of the EO, like the Loudoun case. I don’t support (think a law can do things an EO can’t, also disliked Northam’s school mask EO), but hey, I thought LCPS would win theirs and they didn’t. https://www.iwv.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Lukas_vs_FCPS_February_2022.pdf |