Outdoor masking rule divides Kailua community

Confusion and division in the community over whether masks still should be worn outdoors at Hawaii public schools has led some parents at Mokapu Elementary School to launch a petition drive to end the requirement at their campus.

All of Hawaii’s 257 regular public schools are currently required to follow the state Department of Education’s COVID-19 guidance that reads, “Masks must be worn by everyone — students, staff, visitors and contracted service providers — at a HIDOE school campus or facility when indoors and outdoors.”

When asked about the reasons for the requirement, DOE Communications Director Nanea Kalani said in an email, “Correct and consistent masking is identified by DOH (the state Department of Health) as a core essential strategy for school settings. For this reason, the DOE requires masking both indoors and outdoors on all campuses for consistency across the public school system. This requirement has been in place since the start of the school year.”

However, the group of parents and community members at Mokapu Elementary in Kailua point out the Health Department’s latest guidance says that “students and staff do not need to wear masks in most outdoor settings.”

Their petition on change.org — which reads, “It is time to end the mandatory outdoor masking policy of our children at Mokapu Elementary School and instead allow parents and children the freedom to decide whether or not they will mask outdoors” — had drawn more than 450 signatures as of Thursday evening.

The petition’s originator, Maureen Lenzi, who lives at Marine Corps Base Hawaii and has two children attending Mokapu, said in an email that she believes the Health Department’s guidance ought to take precedence. “The HIDOE has inserted itself into a health-related policy that they have no authority to regulate or modify,” she said.

DOH spokesman Brooks Baehr says his department’s recommendations don’t constitute a mandate for DOE. Health officials combine information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with local factors, and then “we simply offer guidance” to the DOE, he said.

Kalani said the DOE consults closely with the Health Department to create its pandemic rules and that while the DOH’s guidance for schools does not call for masking at all times outdoors, it does include considerations for outdoor masking.

“As such, our current mask policies align,” she said.

That portion of the DOH’s guidance reads, “Students and staff should wear masks in crowded outdoor settings or during activities that involve sustained close contact with other people. Schools may elect to require that masks be worn in outdoor settings to simplify procedures for identification of contacts when a person with COVID19 infection is identified. For example, if cohorting or physical distancing will not be maintained during recess, wearing masks can help mitigate exposure and decrease the number of students and staff who are not up to date with their vaccines and must quarantine. Schools should be supportive of students and staff who choose to wear a mask outdoors.”

Lenzi also said she thinks the “schools may elect” passage implies that individual public schools have the power to decide on masking rules.

But Kalani said that passage exists because the DOH guidance is meant for both private and public schools. No Hawaii public school is permitted to deviate from the DOE’s COVID-19 guidance, she said.

Honolulu Star-Advertiser calls and emails to Mokapu’s principal and complex-area superintendent were not returned.

Those signing the petition want to see outdoor masking become an individual choice at the school.

“Children, like adults, can go anywhere outside in the state of Hawaii without a mask, except for a public school, preschool, or daycare,” Lenzi said in her email. “Masks have been shown to be more detrimental than protective in children educationally, socially, and emotionally. Furthermore, outdoor transmission of COVID-19 is exceedingly rare.”

The DOE’s masking requirement for both outdoors and indoors in schools has stood even though Ige dropped the statewide outdoor mask mandate in May.

Kalani said the reasons the public school system continues to require masks outdoors and indoors include the increased risk of coronavirus exposure in densely populated school settings. Outdoor masks allow students to be able to socialize during recess and other breaks without school staff having to constantly enforce physical distancing, she said.

Low vaccination rates among children ages 5 to 11 and 12 to 17 also influence the DOE’s rules, Kalani said. “As of March 2, DOH statistics show that 21.4% of children ages 12-17, and 0.1% of ages 5-11, have received a full vaccination series, including boosters, leaving a large percentage of students not fully vaccinated,” she said.

Deep differences in opinion over COVID-19 restrictions in schools have fractured some communities in Hawaii and across the nation. In one extreme local case, a man who was angry about Sunset Beach Elementary School’s COVID-19 safety rules walked onto the campus without authorization in January with his smartphone video camera running as he cursed and argued loudly with some staff members and upset some students.

State schools interim Superintendent Keith Hayashi and numerous other educators have testified at the state Legislature about an increase in threats and harassment of school employees, often over pandemic rules. A bill to make threatening an educator a misdemeanor is moving at the Legislature.

Adding to the confusion among the public was the announcement Monday by Honolulu Mayor Rick Blan­giardi that with the Safe Access O‘ahu program ending Saturday, “the city has no emergency orders, we are back to where we were before the 4th of March 2020.”

Blangiardi was referring to the end of Honolulu County’s requirement for proof of vaccination or a negative COVID- 19 test to enter certain business establishments. The mayors do not have the authority to change state-level rules at the schools.

Gov. David Ige has said he is still undecided about when he will end the state’s indoor mask mandate. Hawaii is the outlier in not having relaxed that order after the CDC in February announced new metrics and guidelines that eased masking recommendations for more than 70% of all Americans.