Henrico Schools to present ‘potential’ transition plan to optional masking

The Virginia Senate on Wednesday voted to pass a bill that would give parents the legal right to send their children to school without masks, taking the authority out of the hands of local school boards.

Sen. Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax City) filed the provision to the bill on Tuesday as an amendment to Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant’s bill that requires schools to offer in-person learning.

Dunnavant, a Republican who represents Henrico, said Wednesday that the bill uncouples the politics.

“Two years into this pandemic, keeping unproven measures in place is no longer justifiable,” Dunnavant said on the Senate floor before the vote took place. “We did masks and boxes and other things because we thought maybe they might help, but they have not proven to do so.”

The bill is expected to pass through the Republican-controlled House of Delegates. It will then go to Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who has been pushing for an end to school mask mandates.

Youngkin has the option to put an emergency clause on the bill, which would make it effective immediately. The bill would then go back to the House and Senate for a vote.

Henrico County Public Schools has mask rules in place, but enforcement of the rules has been discombobulated since Youngkin’s executive order to rescind the K-12 mask mandate went into effect last month.

The school division said in a message to families on Friday that it would stop allowing unmasked students this week after a court ruling that put a temporary block on the order. However, parents told the Citizen that their children have still attended school without masks this week despite the directive.

HCPS Chief of Staff Beth Teigen will present a “potential” plan for a transition away from required masking for students at the Henrico School Board’s work session on Thursday, according to HCPS spokeswoman Eileen Cox.

There is no planned vote on the agenda regarding the COVID-19 update from Teigen. Theoretically, the board could call for a vote on anything, but it’s not anticipated at this time, Cox said.

HCPS officials have maintained that the continued masking requirement for students is not a pushback against the governor, but rather is in keeping with a state law (Senate Bill 1303, passed last year) that requires schools to follow guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “to the greatest extent practicable.”

A Supreme Court of Virginia ruling on Monday, which dismissed a lawsuit against Youngkin, said the law “gives the [school] boards a degree of discretion to modify or even forgo those strategies as they deem appropriate for their individual circumstances.”

The SCOVA ruling eradicates the notion that school boards have their hands tied, and are required to mandate masks based on SB 1303.

If the bill with Petersen’s new provision to make masks for students optional is passed with an emergency clause to take immediate effect, the Henrico School Board will not have to vote on the issue, because it will take away the board’s say in the matter.

“Kids across the Commonwealth win with this bipartisan vote today. Parents are now empowered to decide whether their children should wear a mask in schools,” Youngkin said in a statement on Wednesday. “This vote also shows that school boards who are attacking their own students are stunningly detached from reality. It’s time to put kids first and get back to normal.”

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Anna Bryson is the Henrico Citizen's education reporter and a Report for America corps member. Make a tax-deductible donation to support her work, and RFA will match it dollar for dollar.