Boston students back in masks? Ironically DESE confirms no return to statewide mask mandate

Today, December 30, 2022, Boston Public Schools Superintendent Mary Skipper announced that Boston Public Schools students and staff will be expected to wear masks on their return from Christmas Break. The masking "expectation" will be in place from January 4 to January 13, 2023.

Although Boston Public Schools are claiming that students who don't wear masks will not be disciplined or sent home, hence BPS repeated the assurances that the masking expectation is not a mandate. Time will tell if BPS keeps this promise.

Boston had a school mask mandate until June of this year when the mandate was dropped due to a protest held by medical freedom activists from We the People of MA, an organization formed to fight for our rights and oppose tyrannical rule. The protest occurred at the Thomas Kenny Elementary School in Dorchester, when a 9-year-old Boston Public Schools student was denied access to an education and kicked out of school for the day simply because they were not wearing a mask. Two folks from We the People of MA, including the cousin of the student, with permission from the child’s parent, rang the doorbell to the school and requested to speak with the principal and/or school nurse, after getting text messages from the student asking the cousin for help. The school then put the staff and students on lockdown aka “safe mode” and called Boston Police, who threatened the pair with arrest if they didn’t get off of school property. The student was dismissed to the cousin after about 2 hours later. The following day, around 5pm, BPS sent an email to all administration and staff calling off the mask mandate. Their reasoning for calling off the mandate was that they reached their threshold guidelines, but the data proves this to be untrue, leading us to believe that the mandate was ended because of the backlash and pushback that ensued after the news of the protest circulated.

The rest of Massachusetts will not be returning to masking, according to the Department of Elementary and Secondary. A DESE spokeswomen said in a statement to this outlet, "The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has no plans to reinstitute a statewide mask mandate."

Medical freedom groups are already calling for Boston Public Schools teachers to lead the way in opposing the new masking policy

This outlet, Massachusetts Free Press, reached out for comment to the Healey Driscoll transition team asking if Governor Elect Healey would support Boston re introducing a mask mandate, as well as if the Governor elect supports a statewide mask mandate, we have not recived a response as of 10:09 PM on 12/30/2022.

We also reached out to Somerville Public Schools & Cambridge Public Schools for the future of their masking policies, we have not yet recived a response as of 10:09 PM on 12/30/2022.