Global Courant 2023-04-13 05:32:36
Alabama legislators on Wednesday developed advanced legislation to allow parents to circumvent requirements for wearing face masks at school.
The House Health Committee passed legislation that harks back to disputes over public health regulations during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill says that parents of a student at a K-12 school have the right to “unsubscribe his or her child” from any policy for wearing a face covering at school, at a prom, on a school bus, or at a school. prom. school bus stop. The bill now goes to the full Alabama House of Representatives for debate.
“This is a parental rights bill,” Republican Chip Brown, the sponsor of the bill, told the committee. “It’s a bill that basically says I, as a parent, should make the health decisions for my kids, not the state.”
Alabama had a statewide mask requirement during the pandemic, but the order expired on April 9, 2021, and the decision was then left to local school officials. Mask requirements have largely disappeared as the number of COVID-19 cases fell. And legal battles have erupted in Florida and other states over who has the authority to ban mask mandates in schools.
Democratic Rep. Pebblin Warren wondered what the impact would be on other children and their families if a child without a mask spread a disease.
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A bill in Alabama would allow parents of K-12 students to “wait out” school mask mandates.
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“I’m just trying to be fair to all parents. If my child gets sick because your child has a virus, what rights do I have to deal with that situation?” Warren said.
Bart Reeves, deputy executive director of the Alabama Association of School Boards, said the bill would strip decision-making powers from local school officials who were elected or appointed by elected officials.
“This sends a disturbing message to our communities that individual preferences can override the collective decisions made through the democratic process,” Reeves said at a public hearing on the bill.
The co-founder of a group opposed to mask and vaccine mandates spoke at the public hearing for the bill.
“In recent years, we have seen parents’ rights erased by the forced masking of their children,” Kaycee Cavender told the commission.
