Trustees passed a motion in early December last year instituting a universal masking “requirement”, however, the directive came with an easy to access opt-out clause. Photo credit: T. Lloyd Electric Ontario
Hamilton’s public school board (HWDSB) trustees have voted to cease mandating that students and staff wear masks.
The mandate originally came into effect on December 12, 2022 at elementary and secondary schools after trustees passed a motion at a three-hour board meeting the week prior.
It should be noted that the mandate, which was called a “temporary universal masking requirement,” allowed the “unrestricted option to opt out.”
But after trustees heard from staff at a January 16, 2023 board meeting that the requirement did not appear to increase mask-wearing between mid-December 2022 and mid-January 2023, a motion to extend the mandate failed to pass on a 5-5 tied vote.
Staff presented “perceptual data” to trustees that showed 61 per cent of school administrators believe that mask-wearing stayed “about the same” when trustees implemented the mandate while only 22 per cent reported an increase, and 17 per cent said they felt there was actually a decrease.
Board chair Dawn Danko said back in December that the trustees were “not looking for a mandate,” but “looking to improve masking” which is why an opt-out option was included.
It appears that once trustees saw data suggesting that mask-wearing was not increasing, some of them shifted to oppose the mandate since their original justification for the policy had disappeared.
Danko, Kathy Archer, Becky Buck, Amanda Fehrman, and Ray Mulholland were the five trustees who opposed the mandate’s extension.
On the other side of the debate, trustee Sabreina Dahab was the one who put forward the motion to extend the mask mandate and was backed by trustees Maria Felix Miller, Graeme Noble, Paul Tut, and Todd White. Trustee Elizabeth Wong was absent.
Ward 2 trustee Dahab said at a previous meeting that “children are dying and…we can change the course of what happens” by implementing a strong mask mandate. She originally called for a strict mandate that only had an opt-out option for those with a doctor’s note.
The board still officially recommends masks, but will no longer require students and staff to opt out should they choose not to wear one.
The board was unable to provide complete data about how many students and staff opted out of the December 12 mask mandate since many of them did so verbally. There was also a “Mask Opt-Out Form” that could be filled out.
The board will continue to display signage in schools and classrooms to “raise awareness” about mask-wearing in HWDSB schools. It is unclear at this time what messages are on those signs.
They will also continue to use funds to make single-use masks available at school entrances and in classrooms.
The Hamilton public school board was famously at the centre of a similar controversy in March 2022 involving their mask mandate. Trustees voted on March 10, 2022, to keep a masking mandate at its schools and only allow opting out due to medical reasons despite the Province of Ontario dropping all requirements.
School boards do not have the authority to unilaterally create their own enforceable public health measures of that nature, however, so trustees reversed the original motion by replacing it with a more watered-down masking recommendation.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
