BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
INEZ — Mask-wearing in schools and on buses is now optional in Martin County. The mask mandate was lifted at Monday’s Board of Education meeting and went into effect Tuesday.
The decision passed 4-1.
Martin County Schools Superintendent Larry James said he received several requests in the last few weeks to make masks optional “like all the other surrounding counties.”
“We’re one of five counties in the whole state that’s mandating masks,” James said, noting that people in the community are not wearing masks in local retail businesses.
“And it’s been harder and harder at schools,” said James. “We started off good wearing them in the schools, but now it’s like mask fatigue.”
James added that anyone could still choose to wear a mask, and the district would make them available in the schools every day.
“Maybe it’s a win-win,” he said. “What do you all think?”
BOE member Larna Cassady spoke up then.
“I make a motion that we make it optional,” Cassady said.
James went on to say that proposed legislation, House Bill 51, would let parents opt out of school district mask mandates. The bill cleared the Kentucky House lower chamber on a 56-35 vote last week and moved to the Senate.
“It’s coming,” said James. “Whether we make them optional tonight or not, it’s coming.”
Chairman Kathleen Price asked for a second on the motion.
“I’ll second,” BOE member Booie Clark said.
Price called for a vote, and Cassady, Clark, Price and Steven Gauze voted in favor, while Mickey McCoy opposed.
“My reason, Madam Chair, is that I watched, as I always do every day, WSAZ today, and Eastern Kentucky was all red, which, of course, is the worst,” McCoy said. “We’ve been in red for so long.”
McCoy stated the county’s low vaccination rate is a problem.
“And we continue to stay in the red,” added McCoy. “So I must go with the science on this, and that’s why I voted to keep it mandatory.”
The latest CDC “County Community Levels” map shows the COVID-19 level remains “high” in Martin and several Eastern Kentucky counties. The CDC recommends wearing a mask indoors in public, staying up to date with COVID-19 vaccines, and getting tested if you have symptoms.
In a short poll of residents Tuesday, most respondents agreed with lifting the mandate.
“Thank God that mess is over for our children and they can see each other’s smiling faces,” Warfield resident Melissa Parsley said.
Another resident said it should have been done months ago.
Not everyone agreed.
“If you didn’t have someone to die from COVID, you wouldn’t understand how bad this is,” Inez resident Junior Mills said.
Another resident said she always wears a mask.
