Largest Arkansas School District, Springdale School Halts Mask Requirements

The biggest school district in Arkansas has halted its mask guidelines. As of now, Arkansas recorded 28 new COVID-19 fatalities. On Tuesday, the Springdale School Board voted to end its mandatory rules for K-7 students to don face masks on buses and indoors.

The Springdale School Board deliberated to halt its mask mandate for students. (Photo: KY3)

Other Arkansas Schools

Meanwhile, Waldron Public Schools implemented a face mask regulation for 30 days, which began on September 8. On August 12, Pine Bluff School District declared a mask directive.

The biggest school district in the state was one out of 100 districts that set forth face mask guidelines. This was following one judge barring Arkansas’ prohibition on government mask directives.

Such guidelines have extended to over half of the state’s public school pupils.

According to Arkansas on Wednesday, its COVID-19 fatalities toll currently could be summed up to 7,362. The novel coronavirus cases of Arkansas increased by 1,919 to 479,110 since the early stage of the global outbreak. Its hospitalizations due to the virus quite decreased by seven to 1,090.

Johnny Key: Mask Mandates Working

According to the Arkansas Secretary of Education Johnny Key, the imposed mask guidelines in schools in Arkansas are doing what they are designated to do. He stated from September 6 to 13, the state’s public schools witnessed a 1,300-dip in active cases in K-12 schools.

Key said, “It is working. If you keep doing what you’re doing with the work on getting more students and staff vaccinated when they become eligible, with the masking strategies, the HVAC strategies.”

He added, “All of those things are layer upon layer of protection to make sure that we are going to have a successful school year this year.”

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Arkansas ranks 19th across the United States for new COVID-19 cases per capita, indicated by Johns Hopkins University research data.

There are reportedly 450 coronavirus patients in ICUs throughout Arkansas. Two hundred eighty-nine are on ventilators. Thirty-two intensive care unit beds are available in Arkansas, according to the Department of Health (DOH).

Governor Hutchinson’s Take

Governor Asa Hutchinson has requested the legislature of Arkansas to proffer an exception to state law that bars schools from mandating face masks. According to Hutchinson, he is currently remorseful having signed the bill. This is due to the increased susceptibilities of the Delta variant and students under 12 are not qualified for the COVID-19 vaccine.

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