The Albany County School District #1 Board of Trustees met on September 8 to approve a revised COVID-19 plan requiring masks through October 15.
The mask requirement means all students will be required to wear protective face coverings in all ACSD K-12 facilities. This vote just extending the requirement that was already in place.
This decision has sparked debate amongst the community and even inspired a walkout from Laramie High School students on Monday of this week.
Reportedly, 70-80 students left class at 10 a.m. and walked out of the building holding signs and protesting the mask mandate.
“It was an interesting thing to see,” Laramie resident Dan Hervick said. “You don’t expect to see that kind of protest in a town like this, but I can’t say I’m sad to see it.”
Hervick says he was just on his way to Walmart when he saw the protestors. “I honked and they cheered. I think it’s great that they took the chance to use their rights to protest for this.”
This protest got back to the school board and to chairwoman Janice Marshall.
Marshall agreed with the students saying, “I don’t want to wear masks either.” However, Marshall said the board voted the way they did based on concern for the health and safety of students.
“I want to keep you safe and I want you to keep me safe,” Marshall said. “If I got what I wanted, it would be for COVID to go away. But that’s not reality, so we have to do what we can to limit the spread.”
“The claim from the student who organized the protest was that the school is so inconsistent in actually enforcing this policy,” Hervick said. “That’s what my own kid has been telling me and if that’s true I don’t know what good an extended mandate will do.”
Superintendent Jubal Yennie said to the Laramie Boomerang that the students won’t face extra discipline for the protest. However, the students were considered unexcused for the walkout and their parents were called.
Students have been reported to be planning another walkout next Monday as well. With Yennie saying they will be allowed to, but will not be excused from their classes again.
This protest comes after a tense series of board meetings including an incident where members of the public disrupted the board meeting by barging into the meeting chambers.
The student responsible for organizing the protests argued that the ACSD Board of Trustees was overstepping their boundaries in implementing this decision.
“I hear a lot of parents and students saying that the board doesn’t have the authority to make public health mandates,” said Hervick. “I’m inclined to agree.”
The board will meet a few days before the October 15 deadline closes, at which point they said they will reassess if a mask mandate is needed.
They said this reassessment is stipulated on one of two things. Either the vaccination rate of county hits 70% or the Wyoming Department of Health lists Albany County as a moderate Transmission level zone for a continuous three-week period.
Until then, the district has stated that it will continue using other health measures like social distancing and other procedures alongside the mask mandate.
