White Hall students to mask for 7 days

Students in the White Hall School District will be required to wear masks for seven days, starting today.

Superintendent Doug Dorris issued the mandate Wednesday evening, citing a rise in the number of covid-19 positive cases and students quarantined in the district. The move follows a clause in the district's decision to ease the mask rule last month, if the number reached 30, Dorris had the option to reinstate the requirement.

According to data from the Arkansas Department of Health, White Hall had 10 active cases of covid-19, 22 total faculty and staff cases since Aug. 1 and 79 student cases since Aug. 1. It is not clear, however, how many students or employees are in quarantine.

District officials will reevaluate the covid-19 statistics after the seven-day period, Dorris said.

"If the numbers decrease, the mask mandate will be removed," he said. "Thank you for your cooperation and understanding as we work to protect the health of our students and staff."

The school board voted to relax the mask mandate to a strong recommendation effective Dec. 6. Dorris cited decreases in the number of students either testing positive for covid-19 or going into quarantine.

Two petitions challenging the mandate were filed during the fall semester, but the board upheld it following both hearings.

The Pine Bluff School District, which has a mask mandate in place, recorded 13 active cases as of Monday, according to the ADH. Since Aug. 1, the district has totaled 21 faculty and staff cases and 55 student cases.

The Watson Chapel School District, which does not mandate masks but sets an "expectation" for wearing them, had 19 active cases as of Monday according to Superintendent Andrew Curry, although that was not reflected in the latest ADH data. Curry said as of Wednesday, that number went down to 11, and two kindergarten classes of approximately 20 students each went under quarantine because they were in close contact with a classmate who tested positive.

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