DeWitt Schools Imposes Extreme Facemask Mandate On Young Children

DeWitt Public Schools sent a letter to parents signed by principals of K-5 schools, advising how their children would be instructed to eat snacks at school while wearing a face mask.

The Oct. 15 letter stated: “We have been advised by the Health Department to encourage students to pull their masks up and down while eating their dry snacks (Goldfish, crackers, granola bars, etc.). For example, pull mask down, take a bite, pull mask up, repeat. Students still have the opportunities to engage in mask breaks throughout the school day. This one mitigation strategy is an example of an effective measure to keep students in school. For example, just this week we had a positive case surface in a DPS classroom and without this precautionary measure, seven students would have needed to quarantine. With this measure in place, only the student who tested positive needed to quarantine.”

DeWitt Superintendent Shanna Spickard stated in an email that the district is following guidelines issued by the county health department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The guidelines revolve around quarantine measures required of unmasked children who spend 15 minutes or more during a 24-hour period in the presence of someone who has contracted COVID-19.

"Our goal is to keep students in school, so we are trying to prevent the amount of time they are unmasked. Before these modified quarantine guidelines, we were looking at as many of 4-6 students who were close contacts; now, if we can keep unmasked time lower, it might be one or two--if any," Spickard said in an email.