Opinion
Lower Merion School District Gets An F In Communication
On Thursday the Lower Merion School District issued a statement that it was re-imposing its mask mandate. And on Friday they issued another statement, reversing the mask mandate, saying that masks were now highly recommended, but not required.
In Thursday’s announcement, it appears that the district was saying that its implementation of the mask requirement was not a choice that they made on their own, but rather a policy decision made by some other un-named higher authority – when in fact, no higher authority had issued any such requirement.
Why did the administration make this statement that was factually incorrect?
There are two possible answers to that question.
- The administration knew that the statement was incorrect, but it didn’t want to take responsibility for imposing a mask mandate. Instead, they wanted to make it appear that they were only following orders.
- The administration was misinformed/advised about state and federal policies having to do with the implementation of mask mandates and incorrectly believed that the district was required to implement a mask mandate.
Friday’s statement also appears to be disingenuous, if not flat out untrue.
What sort of “update” did LMSD receive on Friday? Neither CDC nor MCOPH ever decreed that schools had to implement a mask mandate in the first place. Update? Come on.
A Better Example, Philadelphia School System
If Lower Merion School District wants to improve their communications, they could follow the lead of the Philadelphia Schools – they also recently re-imposed a mask mandate. Here’s what the Philly Schools sent out –
To help protect everyone’s health and well-being as COVID-19 case counts continue to rise in the Philadelphia area, the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH) has recommended that we resume universal mask wearing. Therefore, starting this Monday, May 23, 2022 and until further notice, all School District students and staff will be required to wear their masks during the school and work day and while riding on school buses and vans.
Notice, the Philadelphia School District, based on the recommendation of the Health Department – is requiring everybody to wear masks in schools (something Lower Merion Schools could do if they chose to). Unlike LMSD, the Philadelphia Schools owned their decision.