Virginia School Divisions Reject Youngkin's Dangerous Executive Order on Masks

As an early post yesterday indicated, one of the first acts of newly sworn in GOP Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin did yesterday was to sign an ececutive order puporting to allow individal parents - many being knucle dragging and ignorance embracing fools and or "Christians" - to flout school division mask mandates and endanger other students, teachers, school professional and other staff.  The action drew the outrage of teachers and I suspect a majority of parents and already a number of large school divisions e.g., Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax, Richmond, Henrico, have given Youngkin the poverbial finger and made it clear that they intend to ignore Youngkin's exective order and comply with CDC guidelines.  In response Youngkin has basically threatened school divisions and said he will “consider all options” in forcing school divisions to put the whim of a minority of [demented] parents over the health and safety ofa majority of students, teachers and school staff, confirming once agai that Youngkin is a extremist.   One can only hope thst the mindless "soccer moms" who voted for Youngkin are waking up to the gravity of their mistake.  A piece at WTOP News looks at the Northern Virginia school divisions' common sense responses:

Virginia’s freshly inaugurated governor, Glenn Youngkin, signed executive orders removing school masking requirements across the state on Saturday afternoon. Since that moment, Arlington and Alexandria school systems have joined Fairfax County Public Schools in reminding families that masking policies remain in place.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki, in response to coverage from WTOP’s Nick Iannelli on Sunday, voiced her support for the move as an Arlington County parent — a title, she noted, newly minted governor Glenn Youngkin does not have.  “Thank you to [Arlington Public Schools] for standing up for our kids, teachers and administrators and their safety in the midst of a transmissible variant,” Psaki wrote.

Virginia Delegate Patrick Hope of Arlington County also responded to Gov. Youngkin’s statement in a discussion with WTOP. He said that the state’s governor has “no authority at all” to determine how mask mandates operate at individual school systems.

“We are governed by the Virginia code,” Hope told WTOP. “And the Virginia code states very clearly that school districts should adhere by the CDC’s recommendations.”

Less than 12 hours after Virginia’s first Republican governor since 2009 entered office and signed those executive orders, Arlington Public Schools announced that their mask mandates are still in effect.

Citing the state’s bipartisan Senate Bill 1303, the school system said that students would remain bound to mask requirements within their bounds. The bill, signed into law in early 2021, encourages in-person instruction using mitigation strategies provided by the Centers for Disease Control. Those strategies continue to include mask-wearing for those ages two and up.

“Arlington Public Schools implemented our mask requirement this school year prior to Gov. Northam’s K-12 mask mandate, and we will continue to make decisions that prioritize the health, safety and well-being of our students and staff, following the guidance of local and national health professionals,” the system wrote in a statement.

Alexandria City schools followed suit, saying they would also be keeping their mask requirement in place.

“ACPS will continue to abide by the health and safety guidelines of the CDC and the Alexandria Health Department and continue to require all individuals to wear masks that cover the nose and mouth in ACPS schools, facilities and buses,” the school system said on Twitter.

Articles in the Virginian Pilot and the Washington Post also looks at the issue and the strong reaction from school divisions and note that if Youngkin pushes his dangerous and irresponsible agenda litigation - which hopefully kills any popularity Youngkin might have hoed for with a majoeity of parents - will be the likely result.  Here are excerpts from the Post story:

The [Youngkin’s] order, with health and safety implications for millions of children and teachers, has elicited confusion and conflicting vows of defiance from districts in more liberal parts of the state, suggesting heightened tension between Virginia schools superintendents and the governor in the first week of his administration. School districts in the immediate D.C. suburbs fired back this weekend by asserting that masks will continue to be required inside buildings.

“Like any contentious issue in American politics, this will end up in a courtroom,” said Stephen Farnsworth, a political scientist at the University of Mary Washington. “You really have to go back to the days of massive resistance and desegregation to find education as prominent in the actions of a governor as you have seen in Day One of the Youngkin administration.”

The mask order has left some educators and parents reeling, including the father of an immunocompromised second-grader with a brain tumor in Alexandria, who is uncertain whether he will continue to send his child to school, . . . .

Adam Laats, a Binghamton University professor who studies the history of American education, said a lawmaker-led push to “ban something purportedly bad” from education is a long-running tradition. Laats said legislative or gubernatorial bans on subjects or teachings have rarely proved effective, including myriad attempts to prohibit the teaching of the theory of evolution over the years.

“To my mind, that’s a meaningless piece of propaganda,” Laats said of Youngkin’s critical race theory proclamation. “It will have an effect only indirectly by causing confusion, by making administrators and teachers scramble to figure out if they are in compliance.”

Soon after Youngkin announced the order, Democrats denounced it: “The war they have declared on Black history is dangerous, to say the least,” Del. Lamont Bagby (D-Henrico), leader of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, said Saturday.