The Appleton School District will have COVID-19 mitigation policies in place for the 2021-2022 school year. The Board of Education approve the guidelines Monday. Those include not requiring masking but recommending the practice indoors and on school transportation. Masks will continue to be made available to staff and students and schools will continue promoting vaccination for eligible staff and students. During the public comment period, some parents spoke against mandatory masking. Andrea Klitzke (CLITZ-KEE) says fewer people are wearing masks and there’s confusing data from health care professionals.
“There’s a lot of physical and developmental challenges,” Klitzke says. “Kids aren’t able to see facial expressions and they have to deal with a lot of things that we have trouble dealing with, as well. When is it going to be safe enough? I feel we keep moving the goal post. So, it’s like first we said when cases are low enough. we’ll go back. And then it happened that high schoolers didn’t get to fully go back at all.”
Dr. Sarah Campbell, a pediatrician, says parents and school district officials have to balances risks of virtual and in-person learning.
“If that mother says that “I need my child to be back in school. How can you prove they’re safe?”, Campbell says. “You’ll have to weigh the risk and benefit of being virtual and outside the school with your peers versus the being in school and the risk of COVID infection.”
The new COVID mitigation protocols include not requiring masking but recommending the practice indoors and on school transportation. Masks will continue to be made available to staff and students and promoting vaccination for eligible staff and students will continue.
