According to Pittsburg’s KDKA, a CBS News affiliate, some state leaders are encouraging masks but not mandating them while the Pennsylvania State Education Association is demanding that policy.
“We are at a crossroads,” the union president said, “and what our schools decide now will set the stage for what this school year looks like.”
Diane Gramley of the American Family Association of Pennsylvania tells American Family News that Gov. Tom Wolf backs the teachers’ union.
"He's called on the legislature to pass a law mandating the schools to make the kids wear masks,” she advises. “I don't think the Republican-controlled House and Senate will go that route."
The state legislature so far, in fact, has rejected the governor’s demands.
Gramley believes a mandatory policy won’t happen because, she says, the teachers themselves don’t want to wear them either.
“And there's been no call from the teachers' union at this point to go on strike or anything like that,” Gramley says. “I think they know if they were to do that there would be pushback from the teachers themselves."
Before it was eclipsed by debate over the vaccines, mask-wearing emerged as a volatile issue during the virus pandemic, and debate over their effectiveness, and the effect on children, is still continuing today.
