STEM Highlands Ranch school slammed for delay in mask exemption order – CBS Denver

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HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. (CBS4) Parents at STEM Highlands Ranch school defied the administration Monday when they were first told in the morning that their students could not enter class without a mask. The Douglas County Department of Health on Friday approved a new public order allowing families to benefit from exemptions from mask requirements for reasons of physical or mental health.

Teachers should have no decision-making power over the health of our children, said Amity Wicks, a parent of two students at the school. It is a question of personal freedom, it is a question of bodily autonomy, it is a question of parental rights.

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(credit: CBS)

Wicks was joined by another family when she spoke to principals, recording the meeting and sharing the video with CBS4. The three students were eventually allowed to start their day without masks, but administrators said they hoped they would have more time to review the sanitary order.

What we were asking our families was to let us pass this week, just before the fall break, Nicole Bostel told CBS4 on Monday. Bostel is the communications director of STEM School. Allow us to survey our teachers, our students, our families, to collect all of this data so that when we come back from fall vacation, we are all on the same page.

Wick met with the high school principal, the director of schools compliance and the executive director of the STEM school. She said the school had previously followed other public health orders, so she couldn’t understand the delay in this new policy. The school said it was settling conflicting guidelines because it still believed it was under the jurisdiction of Tri-County Health. He also felt that a Friday afternoon decision would be difficult to implement over a weekend.

It’s a lot to make that change overnight, Bostel said.

The Douglas County School District issued guidelines over the weekend explaining it would allow exemptions under the new public health order. Students from other schools said they barely noticed the change on campus.

It was pretty much the same, it wasn’t too different, just some people didn’t have masks, an off campus student said.

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(credit: CBS)

Other students said it encouraged more students to remove their masks, whether or not they filed for an exemption. The STEM school depends on its own advisory board as a charter school and can act independently of the district on certain matters. Bostel said the school followed school district guidelines the vast majority of the time.

If you don’t get an exemption form you don’t have to wear one so I think not everyone is wearing one, another student said during his lunch outside. from school.

School principals sent a notice advising that parents’ masks would still be required this week, partly explaining the school dress code during the pandemic. Students will be on leave on Friday for parent-teacher conferences, so the school wanted four days with mandatory masks before a full week off.

Teachers’ input was important to leaders as they navigated constantly evolving guidelines in their classrooms, including on masks this school year.

It’s hard for us to make a quick change like this without having a lot of responses, Bostel said.

Parents like Wick say their contribution should be a priority and now the law is on their side. She also did not accept the explanation regarding the dress code. A member of the Douglas County Board of Health told CBS4 on Monday that they expected the new order to go into effect immediately and if the entire school district could reverse the policy over the weekend, STEM school should have been able to do that as well.

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I want my kids to grow up knowing their parents fought for their freedom, Wick said.

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