Greater Latrobe, Derry Area students plan walkouts to protest mask mandate

Some students at Greater Latrobe and Derry Area high schools are planning walkouts Tuesday morning to protest the statewide mandate requiring students, staff and teachers in K-12 schools to wear masks.

Greater Latrobe organizer Spencer Bowman, a 17-year-old senior, said he hopes the school board will vote to buck the mandate and allow students to decide whether they want to wear a mask, going back to the optional mask-wearing policy that was in place for the first few days of the school year.

“We’re personally tired of having to wear the mask,” Bowman said.

Derry Area co-organizer Shelby Glick, also a senior, said she hopes to show state and local officials “that we will stand for what we believe in.”

“We want the choice to choose what we put on our bodies,” Glick said.

State officials last week announced the mandate in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. It goes into effect Tuesday.

State department of health officials cited rising case numbers and the delta variant in announcing the mandate. Until then, school boards had been deciding on their own whether to require everyone wear a mask in school buildings or leave the decision up to each individual.

Just 59 school districts out of 474 that submitted health and safety plans to the Department of Education had implemented mandatory masking policies as of the end of July, officials said.

The CDC recommends universal masking in schools.

Parents voiced their opinions for and against masks at sometimes heated board meetings over the past month, and the issue has prompted a few lawsuits, some aimed at making masks mandatory and others hoping to strike down such mandates. Bowman said he learned that peers in other school districts, including Derry Area, were planning walkouts and decided to organize a similar protest at Greater Latrobe.

“Why take a step back?” he said.

In July, the Greater Latrobe board voted 6-3 to approve an optional mask-wearing policy for those inside district buildings. During the first few days of school, Bowman said there weren’t many who wore masks. In a letter to parents last week, Superintendent Georgia Teppert said the district would comply with the mandate. She could not be reached Monday.

Derry Area also implemented an optional mask-wearing policy for the start of the school year, but directors on Thursday voted to amend their safety plan to follow the mandate. Superintendent Eric Curry could not be reached Monday.

Bowman said he hopes the walkout shows Greater Latrobe school directors that some students are displeased with the mandate. He understands the district could potentially face repercussions if the school board would decide to not follow the mandate, but he wants them to at least consider it.

”I feel like it would be time to have that conversation,” he said. “I want the school board to ultimately give the students the choice to wear the masks.”

He posted Saturday on Facebook about the planned “Wildcat Walk Out” on Saturday and said the effort gained steam on social media over the holiday weekend. Glick said parents have supplied students with T-shirts, food and water for use during the walkout.