WATERBURY, Conn — With Waterbury's Board of Education deciding Thursday night to drop the mask mandate in schools, effective Monday, that leaves only five school systems in five school systems in Connecticut that still require students to mask up.
Each of the Waterbury parents or grandparents speaking before the Board of Education Thursday night was in favor of ending the mask mandate.
"Children are at an extremely low risk of death, hospitalization or adverse events due to COVID-19," said Amber Staff, a Waterbury mother of three, including a kindergartner. "They face a three to four times higher mortality risk from the flu versus COVID and a 10 times greater risk (of dying) by suicide."
Most suggested Waterbury Public Schools masking decisions have not been based on science.
"It upsets me a little bit to think that there are members of the public who think we are punishing children or abusing children," said Liz Brown, a member of the Waterbury BOE.
Two weeks ago, the Board said masking would continue unless two of three COVID metrics they put in place were met. And Thursday, they were.
"I was pleasantly surprised to see that those metrics met up and it's like the stars aligned," said Dr. Verna Ruffin, Superintendent of Waterbury Public Schools.
One requirement: a citywide COVID positivity rate under 10%.
"At the last meeting (two weeks ago), we had already come down to 7.5% and we have since progressed to 4.3% last week and 2.9% this week. So, we have met that indicator," said Aisling McGuckin, the Waterbury Health Director.
Another benchmark: fewer than 15 COVID cases per 100,000 people.
"Last week we were at 15.5 which was just above the goal of 15 and this week we are down to eight," McGuckin said.
The Board voted unanimously to drop the mandate. Monday will be the first day in two years kids can unmask.
"The tug of war between opinion and science seems to have been lifted off our shoulders," Ruffin added.
The only one of the three benchmarks not met was the goal of 80% of students between the ages of 5-17 being fully vaccinated. That percentage sits at 35 percent.
School officials said they surveyed students and teachers on the issue of the mask mandate and there was a 50/50 split.
Tony Terzi is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at tterzi@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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