Attendees’ refusal to wear masks at a meeting of the state’s public education board led the members to adjourn before they could discuss a potential challenge to Gov. John Bel Edwards’ COVID-19 mask mandate.
On the agenda at the Aug. 18 meeting of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) was a discussion item about a recent opinion issued by state Attorney General Jeff Landry. BESE, and not the governor, has the primary responsibility, along with the state legislature, for coronavirus safety protocols in Louisiana public schools, Landry concluded in an advisory opinion released Aug. 6.
An overflow crowd in the board’s meeting room, however, refused to follow COVID-19 masking rules. No decision has been made as of yet about whether board members may try to take up the issue again in the future, according to Kevin Calbert, the BESE’s communications manager.
“BESE member Holly Boffy made a motion to adjourn the meeting due to attendees’ continued noncompliance with the governor’s mask mandate,” Calbert told the Louisiana Record in an email, “and the board subsequently voted 8-2 to adjourn. The adjournment occurred prior to the agenda item to formally receive AG Opinion 21-0103.”
Prior to Edwards’ decision to reinstate the mask mandate on Aug. 2, the state superintendent of schools, Cade Brumley, had asked Edwards to lift the mask mandate for K-12 students and allow local school districts to put in place their own safety policies.
School officials’ examination of mask authority within the schools comes in the wake of 19 Republican state lawmakers sending a letter urging the governor to rescind the mask mandate in public schools and allowing more local control.
“Two weeks ago, local school districts were cleared by Superintendent Brumley that they would be allowed to make their own decisions regarding use or non-use of masks or other face coverings,” the lawmakers’ Aug. 9 letter to Edwards states. “Just 72 hours before the opening of our public schools, you issued an edict, unilaterally and uncoordinated, for a statewide mask mandate’ directing all people, age 5 and over, to wear face coverings.”
The letter argues that the risk of children dying from a COVID-19 is extremely low and that parents merit more input into masking orders in the public schools. The lawmakers did not specifically mention the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in Louisiana due to the Delta variant.
Copies of the letter were also sent to Brumley, BESE President Sandy Holloway and Landry.