School districts and other major public entities are struggling to keep COVID-19 mask mandates in place, with the vast majority having ended their mandates by now due to widespread public backlash against such restrictions, as well as heavy scrutiny that has revealed the ineffectiveness of such orders.
According to Just The News, of the 500 largest school districts in the country, only a mere 7 still have mask mandates in place, accounting for just 1.4 percent of districts. In October of last year, 369 such districts (73.8 percent) still had mask mandates in effect.
Recent examples of major jurisdictions reversing such mandates include Los Angeles County: The county ultimately chose not to reinstate its mandate after several cities openly vowed to defy the new rules, and a county judge ruled that the L.A. Unified School District’s vaccine mandate was illegal, primarily due to its lack of exemptions for personal beliefs, as well as being preempted by state law.
In Rhode Island, a lawsuit has been filed against the state’s mask mandate for schools, which expired in March, due to the harm experienced by students and the possibility of a precedent being set for future mandates. Although Judge Jeffrey Lanphear chose not to issue a preliminary injunction, he nevertheless acknowledged that the plaintiffs’ children had suffered “irreparable harm” from being forced to wear masks for so long every day, and warned the state’s Department of Health to “tread carefully in promulgating new regulations or extending any existing regulations,” and that the state should not expect “a bottomless pit of deference in the future.”
Numerous studies have been carried out which increasingly prove that masks had little to no impact on the spread of COVID. In April, a study in the prestigious Pediatrics Infectious Disease Journal ultimately found “no convincing evidence to date” that young children are the “key drivers of the pandemic,” thus making restrictions in such environments as schools unnecessary.