CDC: Vaccinated students, teachers can ditch masks; MPS to require

MILWAUKEE - Milwaukee Public Schools will still require everyone wear masks, despite new CDC guidance that fully vaccinated teachers and students can skip the masks.

A Milwaukee Public Schools spokesman says "while the CDC guidance allows flexibility for local districts to determine masking policies, at this time MPS will continue requiring masks in schools."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stresses flexibility for local school districts to make their own decisions. 

"So anyone who's fully vaccinated there, they can, they don't need to mask indoors," said Erin Sauber-Schatz, Team Lead at the Division of Injury Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "They don't need to physically distance. However, it can be difficult for a school to either document the vaccination status of their students, teachers and staff. And so, in that situation, they might decide to do universal policies. So, they might require everybody to mask. They might require everyone to distance, regardless of the vaccination status."

To mask or not to mask — that’s the question that erupted in the spring at school board meetings, with many area districts deciding then to make masks optional. Still, fully vaccinated students and staff might want to hang on to their masks, just in case.

"These are the recommendations right now, and there are local circumstances when they may need to change. If there is an outbreak in a school, everyone will put their masks back on. That would be the first thing that would make sense, until you get through that outbreak and see where things are. Masks are something that I think will come and go with us as we move forward," said Julie Willems Van Dijk, Wisconsin Department of Health Services Deputy Secretary.

Milwaukee teacher Alondra Garcia teaches second grade at Allen-Field Elementary, and says there are pros and cons to teachers going maskless.

"I have to verbalize a lot of things and use my mouth a lot, to dictate, so dictation is very important. And the mask just covers me up completely," Garcia says. "A con would obviously be that we can still carry it, right, the virus, even if we are vaccinated." 

It's a struggle Garcia says other teachers will have to wrestle with, if Milwaukee Public Schools does end up allowing full vaccinated teachers to take the mask off. "The interaction isn’t the same, they’re not able to smile at each other, the way they want to, that interpersonal relationship building aspect is so important in middle school and high school, and they wouldn’t be able to get that with the mask, right? But at the same time, because I know I can be a carrier, there’s a chance I could give it to the young folks." 

The CDC says COVID-19 vaccines reduce the risk of spreading the virus.

Children as young as 12 are eligible for the shots, but the CDC is not advising schools require that vaccination.

For those students and staff who are not fully vaccinated, the new guidance adds that masks should still be worn.

The CDC also discourages separating vaccinated and unvaccinated students.

Students should also still be spaced 3-feet apart, but that isn’t required among fully vaccinated students, the Centers for Disease Control guidance says.

"I think what we can derive from our surveillance is there have been school-based outbreaks, so we know transmission has occurred in school settings," explained Dr. Ryan Westergaard, Chief Medical Officer of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services Bureau of Communicable Diseases.

Wisconsin's school boards could continue to reevaluate their COVID-19 mitigation strategies, in light of the new guidance. 

"My strong sense is that school boards and districts have adopted their own unique policies on masking, and other mitigation strategies, rather than following any particular or set pattern. In making these decisions, school districts have relied upon health guidance and input from the CDC, state and local health departments as well as input from their property and casualty insurers, workers compensation insurance carriers and legal counsel.  Along with that input, school boards and districts have taken into account their unique facilities and student populations when making decisions.  Layered on top of that, school boards have also taken community opinion and sentiment into account," says Wisconsin Association of School Boards government relations director Dan Rossmiller.

"In the course of making these decisions on masking policies, many school boards and districts have reevaluated their policies as CDC and other health guidance (as well as vaccine availability, testing availability, and information about the spread of COVID in their communities) has changed or evolved," added Rossmiller. "I would expect that process of reevaluation will continue in light of the latest updated CDC guidance."