Confusion and disagreements over mask mandates in New York continued until late Tuesday afternoon, when an Appellate Division judge stayed a decision made Monday that overturned the state mandate.
"We disagree 100% with the conclusion of the judge in his opinion that the Department of Health did not have the authority to protect public health," Gov. Kathy Hochul said. "A judge in Albany, with the same fact pattern, came up with a different conclusion."
Whether the temporary stay remains in effect is to be argued Friday morning.
School superintendents started getting emails and texts as soon as word spread of a state Supreme Court ruling from Nassau County overturning the state mask mandate Monday. Parents wanted to know if their children had to wear masks to school, and some said they planned to send their kids without masks.
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The decision, and whether it had been stayed by the appellate court, caused confusion and different reactions around the state Tuesday. More than a dozen districts on Long Island told their communities masks were optional Tuesday, according to ABC7NY news.
The agreement allows the 10-year-old boy to return to school Feb. 7 wearing a face shield. He will be provided bus transportation and will attend all classes with various safety protocols.
But districts in Erie County followed the mask mandate, sending notices to parents that the state Education Department noted the latest ruling out of Nassau County conflicted with a previous decision out of state Supreme Court in Albany County.
Some parents still sent their children to school without face coverings. One of them was Dana Hensley in the Williamsville Central School District. Her 14-year-old daughter went to Casey Middle School without a mask.
"They won't let her go to class. They won't give me documentation of disciplinary action, but they want me to come pick her up because she's not wearing a mask," Hensley said Tuesday morning.
She maintained that the court decision meant there was no state mask mandate in effect and that Erie County's mandate does not apply to schools. The stay that leaves the mandate in place had not been obtained this morning when children went to school.
"They're violating a court order by enforcing masks," Hensley said.
Guidance issued Friday said the state does not "provide for the implementation of 'mask breaks' during the school day, nor does it provide for an exception to the masking requirement on the basis of minimal social distancing in classrooms."
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz disagreed, saying Tuesday that the county's indoor mask mandates still apply to all schools and classrooms because the county order falls under a different section of law than the state mandate. The county considers schools to be public places, he said.
"The judge's decision has no effect on any local government emergency order," Poloncarz said.
The Williamsville district said in a statement that masks are still required at all times in the school day except when students, faculty and staff are eating or drinking. If they don't have one, they are given a mask.
"If they refuse to wear a mask, they are then asked to leave the building. If students refuse to wear a mask, parents/guardians are asked to pick them up from school," the statement said.
Springville Griffith Institute School District and many other local districts sent families a message Monday evening that the state Education Department said "schools must continue to follow the mask rule."
Acting State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett issued a formal determination on where and when masks are required in New York State.
"I think it definitely created a lot of uncertainty and it created a lot of confusion for people over what they were supposed to do," Springville Superintendent James Bialasik said of Monday's court ruling.
He said a handful of students attended school without masks Tuesday. The district always offers students face coverings if they don't have any, he said.
"If a student refused, then we made arrangements for students to be picked up by a parent, if possible," he said.
New York State United Teachers President Andy Pallotta said public health experts have been clear that masks are one strategy to keep people safe.
"In the meantime, we’re looking to state health officials to set a clear off-ramp for when mask requirements in schools can be relaxed so students, families and educators have some certainty that there is light at the end of this long tunnel,” Pallotta said in a statement.
News staff reporters Harold McNeil and Sandra Tan contributed to this story.
