Are school masks working?

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - Kids are the focus of the most recent push for getting vaccinated and wearing masks as their case numbers continue to rise.

Just last week across the country, there were nearly 10,000 new cases in children. In Ohio, kids under 18 accounted for 28% of all current COVID cases, while only being just over 27% of the state population.

The rapid spread of the latest delta variant has a lot of school districts requiring masks. This is despite some parents protesting the move as an invasion of personal choice.

But the argument of personal choice is a tough one when it comes to schools during a pandemic because one family’s personal choice can easily affect hundreds of others.

So districts like Perrysburg are making decisions to keep all students safe when they made the move to go back to masks after starting the school year without them. The spread of COVID cases was the main reason, but even more, was the high number of students who had to quarantine because of unprotected exposure.

“There have been four cases of transmission in school and the rest have been out of school,” Perrysburg Superintendent Tom Hosler said at the time. “We have 39 students that have COVID as of today.”

After the masks were reintroduced?

“We’re seeing a decrease in the students who have to quarantine because they’re in a mask and that’s great,” Hosler said.

Especially in the high school population.

“In that classroom, where we were sending out five kids per period at the high school level, right now there are zero kids per period,” Hosler said.

Hosler says, unfortunately, there continues to be climbing COVID case numbers due to community spread, but the school district can only protect the kids during school hours. And the masks are helping them avoid large numbers of kids who have to be quarantined.

“It affects that teacher, how that teacher is able to do their job. How that classroom is to function, how that school is to function with so many students out,” Hosler said, “but if we can prevent that by simply wearing a mask, then we’re going to do that.”

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