Virginia Governor Youngkin Responds to Northern Virginia School Systems that Refuse to Get Rid of Mask Mandates

In a surprise to no one, the radical Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax school boards in Virginia are ignoring the state’s governor’s executive order to eliminate masks in their districts. 

Yesterday the new governor in Virginia signed an executive order eliminating mandatory face masks across the state like most sane states have recently done.

Now WTOP reports:

Virginia’s freshly inaugurated governor, Glenn Youngkin, signed executive orders removing school masking requirements across the state on Saturday afternoon. Since that moment, Arlington and Alexandria school systems have joined Fairfax County Public Schools in reminding families that masking policies remain in place.

Youngkin’s list of day one executive orders put the power to decide if students should wear a mask squarely into the hands of parents across the state.

“A child whose parent has elected that he or she is not subject to a mask mandate should not be required to wear a mask under any policy implemented by a teacher, school, school district, the Department of Education, or any other state authority,” the order said.

Less than 12 hours after Virginia’s first Republican governor since 2009 entered office and signed those executive orders, Arlington Public Schools announced that their mask mandates are still in effect.

Citing the state’s bipartisan Senate Bill 1303, the school system said that students would remain bound to mask requirements within their bounds. The bill, signed into law in early 2021, encourages in-person instruction using mitigation strategies provided by the Centers for Disease Control. Those strategies continue to include mask-wearing for those ages two and up.

“Arlington Public Schools implemented our mask requirement this school year prior to Governor Northam’s K-12 mask mandate, and we will continue to make decisions that prioritize the health, safety and wellbeing of our students and staff, following the guidance of local and national health professionals,” the system wrote in a statement.

Alexandria City schools followed suit, saying they would also be keeping their mask requirement in place.

Governor Youngkin responded with the following:

We’ll see what happens in the next eight days.  Hopefully, parents in these counties will let these radical school boards know what they think.  Children have statistically never been at risk with COVID and masking them has been abuse.