OCEAN COUNTY – For many students across the country, this fall will be their first time back in the classroom on a regular schedule in almost a year and a half. New Jersey students are no exception. Based on the state’s guidance, students should expect to be back in school full time, with no remote option as of yet.
Gov. Phil Murphy declared that all students, educators, staff and visitors are required to wear masks in public, private and parochial schools, regardless of grade level, unless they meet an exemption.
Some parents called for a virtual learning option for students. Perhaps their child was a more successful or confident online learner, or they worried about the Delta variant of COVID-19. Others expressed concerns about masking students.
“My daughter stayed out of pre-K because of COVID. I was not having her wear a mask for hours [a] day,” Little Egg Harbor parent Krystal Bergmann said. “…I would like her to at least have the virtual option.”
Bergmann’s preference for a virtual option is not far from the preference of others for virtual learning. Christina Liotti, another local parent sending a child back to Toms River schools, says her son “was an ideal virtual student” who achieved “perfect attendance and straight As” as a remote learner.
“As of now he is being positive about his return to in-person school after being all virtual since the beginning of the pandemic,” Liotti said of her son.
Looking to the 2021-2022 school year, the CDC’s guidance remains the same: “Students benefit from in-person learning, and safely returning to in-person instruction in the fall 2021 is a priority.”
“Well, I believe that all parents shouldn’t be worried about taking their kids to school. Especially because our kids were sent out of school for almost two years from COVID,” Toms River parent Eva Cardenas said, before the mask mandate was issued.
To safely return to school, districts must meet a number of state guidelines. Toms River Regional School District, for example, “will be accommodating social distancing where practical.” According to their Restart and Recovery Plan, if desks cannot be spaced six feet apart from each other, physical barriers will be installed. The district has also purchased air scrubbers for each classroom. Though, the state and CDC have updated guidelines from recommending six feet of social distance to three feet.
New Jersey’s health and safety guidance for the upcoming school year also includes promotion of vaccination among “all eligible students and staff,” cohorting, teaching and reinforcing handwashing, daily cleaning and disinfecting of high-touch surfaces, improving air flow with outdoor air or exhaust fans and more.
The CDC currently “recommends universal masking by all students (age 2 or older), staff, teachers, and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status” in light of the “circulating and highly contagious Delta variant.”
A group of Toms River parents that are against the mask mandate have been coordinating coming out with strength of numbers. They plan to attend the Toms River Board of Education meeting held on Wednesday, August 18 at 7:30 p.m. at High School South. The meeting will also be livestreamed.
Other districts around Ocean County have seen their share of mask protests.
