NEWARK – Public school students in Worcester County will begin the school year with masks following a decision by the Maryland State Board of Education last week.
Superintendent Lou Taylor confirmed in a message to parents Friday that because of the state board’s emergency regulation requiring universal masking, Worcester County Public Schools students and staff will be required to wear face coverings.
“We know that the wearing of masks is a polarizing issue in our community; we have seen it the passionate letters, emails, social media comments, and more that we have received over these past months,” Taylor said. “I also know that we are all hoping to see a decline in the transmission levels in our community soon, so we can revisit this decision, but in the meantime, we need to protect every student’s ability to attend school in-person, and it will take all of us working together to make that happen.”
The state board voted 11-1 last Thursday to pass an emergency regulation requiring masks in schools to help stop the spread of COVID-19. While most jurisdictions had already mandated masks, five counties — Worcester, Somerset, Dorchester, Cecil and Carroll — had not. Taylor announced Aug. 17 that masks would be optional.
The day after the state board’s vote, however, Taylor released a message to parents detailing the new universal masking requirement.