LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – About 150 people held signs along Bishop Lane outside the VanHoose Education Center Tuesday in protest against the indoor masking policy at Jefferson County Public Schools.

The policy triggering mandatory masking once Jefferson County hit the highest levels of COVID-19 transmission and hospitalizations was enacted July 19 by the Jefferson County Board of Education, continuing an identical policy passed by the board in March during the latter months of the 2021-22 school year.

Jefferson County has been in the “red” based on metrics developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the past two weeks, meaning masks have been required inside JCPS buildings since July 25.

The honks of cars and trucks passing by those protesting the district’s mandatory masking policy buoyed Angela Marx’s hopes that the board will reverse course and make masks optional inside buildings.

“We’re advocating for her. She’s a severe asthmatic,” Marx said of her 15-year-old daughter at Eastern High school. She said the teen was hospitalized “several times” and missed about three to four weeks of classes during the last school year because of respiratory issues caused by wearing masks.

“When they finally lifted it, she was so relieved, and now we got the text a couple weeks ago and it was almost like she was deflated.” Marx said. “… I hope that they realize that it's up to the parents whether or not we send our kids to school, send our kids to school in a mask or keep them home.”

Families should know by Friday when the statewide COVID-19 community level map is updated whether masks will be required for the first days of the 2022-23 school year, which starts Aug. 10.

Jennifer Griffin, a JCPS parent, said the district’s masking policy doesn’t make sense when most other community facilities don’t have similar mandates in place.

“It’s asinine to think that you can mask up kids for eight hours a day, stick them in a school building, then let them go home and let them run around without masks,” Griffin said. “There’s no other mandate in this community. The only mandates I’ve seen lately might have been in a doctor’s office or healthcare facility.”

“I’m not saying that people shouldn’t be able to wear masks, but it should be their decision and it should be an option not a mandate at this point,” she said.

About a dozen people participated in a counterprotest nearby supporting the district’s masking policy.

Chaunda Lee has multiple children in JCPS schools and supports the district’s decision to require masking when COVID-19 transmission levels and hospitalizations are high.

“If my child doesn't have COVID and they go sit next to a child that does have COVID, my child is going to come home and infect the whole entire household,” she said. “If I get COVID and my children have COVID, who is going to take care of us?”

The district’s masking policy was not on the agenda for Tuesday’s board meeting, but board member Linda Duncan, who represents District 5, said during a discussion on the Aug. 10 start to the 2022-23 school year that she was "kind of startled" when the district first announced its mandatory masking policy effective July 25.

She believed she voted on COVID-19 policies that recommended, not required, universal masking inside schools when local coronavirus transmission levels and hospitalizations hit the highest CDC metric.

However, board documents from the July 19 meeting and the district's COVID-19 policies say masking will be required if Jefferson County reaches "red" in the CDC community level maps.

"I would highly recommend that everybody wear a mask, but I have a great deal of problems with mandating something that we have a lot of problems enforcing," Duncan said. "... I hope that we have an opportunity to have some more input on this issue, maybe from our teachers, so that we get a better idea of how people feel about trying to enforce a mandate."

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