DE PERE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Four U.S. states are lifting school mask requirements.
Here in Northeast Wisconsin, some school districts are also evaluating their masking requirements.
Amanda Beard has kids in the Unified School District of De Pere.
“I was very excited about it actually,” said Beard, “I have not wanted them to wear one from the beginning.”
She was surprised to hear the school district changed the masking requirement.
Now, it’s optional for De Pere 4K through 6th grade students and staff.
Beard says she and other parents didn’t know there was a meeting to discuss the change, but she thinks it was the right decision.
“It was kind of hard when I had 9th graders and 7th graders who didn’t wear them and then my 5th grader had to wear them all the time,” said Beard.
Fox 11 reached out to the Unified School District of De Pere, but they declined to talk.
“Certainly the number of new daily cases that’s being recorded across our state is decreasing,” said Bellin Health Emergency Physician, Dr. Brad Burmeister.
Burmeister says face masks are an important public health measure to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
But how helpful the masks are, depends on the degree of community spread.
Right now, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services shows all Northeast Wisconsin counties have ‘critically high’ case activity.
“If there’s a lot of people in our communities with COVID-19 then masks are going to be more effective as you encounter people around you at random with COVID, versus if case numbers are very very low the mask doesn’t really become important at all,” said Burmeister.
Burmeister says although some organizations are relaxing rules, it’s still important to err on the side of caution when it comes to COVID-19.
The Green Bay School District sent parents a reminder on Tuesday about its mask policy.
Masks will still be required, as long as Brown County’s case average is higher than 100 per 100,000 residents.
The average is currently 339 cases per 100,000 residents.
