As schools around the state continue mask debates while awaiting legal decisions on the validity of the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s order requiring them, two Lehighton Area School District nurses weighed in Monday in favoring of continuing the mandate.

Kali Andrew, high school nurse, and Melissa Haydt, elementary center nurse, both cited stringent quarantine parameters set by the state for mask-optional districts and the goal to keep students in school as a primary reason for continuing to follow the order.

“We have stuck to the rules from the beginning of the pandemic with no exceptions and it has allowed us to provide face-to-face instruction longer than any other school in Carbon County,” Andrew said.

At the high school, through 34 days, 125 students have already been quarantined in the 2021-22 school year and 30 students have tested positive for COVID-19. That compares to 46 positive tests for all of the 2020-21 school year.

The elementary center has seen 32 positive COVID-19 tests this year and 175 students in quarantine. In all of last year, 42 elementary center students tested positive.

If the mask mandate was not followed, quarantine parameters require that close contacts would have to quarantine between 10-20 days.

“If one student tests positive in the high school, 16 other students would be forced to quarantine because of close contact,” Andrew said. “At the middle school, it is 28 students. How would we accommodate these students missing school? With vaccines opening up to our youngest school population, we remain hopeful the virus will slow down. But let’s give our entire community time the opportunity to get vaccinated if they wish before taking masks away.”

Parents in attendance at Monday’s meeting, however, again addressed their stance against mask requirements.

“It just doesn’t make any sense why we are insisting on masks when there is still such a high case count,” April Walker said. “Masks aren’t working. I think the district should look into allowing a parental exemption without requiring approval from a physician.”

Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court heard arguments Wednesday on whether the Wolf administration had the legal right to impose a mask mandate on K-12 schools and child care facilities to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

“When that decision comes in, we will review it and bring that information to the board,” Lehighton solicitor Eric Filer said during Monday’s meeting.

Last month, Lehighton Director Joy Beers called for a survey of parents of district students to see which side of the mask debate they fall on. Uncertainty over wording of the survey question led to the matter resurfacing Monday night.

“My thought was that parents should know the quarantine parameters before answering the question,” Superintendent Jonathan Cleaver said.

Beers, however, said that could turn it into a “loaded question.”

“I think wording it like that would affect their opinion,” she said. “This is just data the board receives. We don’t have to go along with it if more parents vote for not masking. It is just for the board to gather information.”

The board’s consensus following discussion Monday was to ask two questions on the survey; one gauging how parents felt about a mask mandate not taking quarantine parameters into account, and another how they felt about a mask mandate given the current quarantine parameters.

“For me, I would like to know the quarantine ramifications if my child attended school without a mask,” LASD parent Fred Kemmerer said.

Director David Bradley put a motion on the floor to “emulate the Tamaqua (Area School District)” stance on masks and allow for exception forms without a doctor’s signature. It failed when no other director gave it a second.

“I would rather do the survey first,” board member Barbara Bowes said. “It would be nice to know where the parents stood.”