Another Sacramento-area school district quits enforcing California mask mandate for students

Another Sacramento area school district changed its mask enforcement policy Tuesday amid large demonstrations among students at one of its high schools.

El Dorado Union High School District issued a statement to parents saying the district will change its enforcement protocol, opting to educate students but no longer exclude them from in-person class.

“The enforcement of masking will be done by educating students and asking them to mask but no further action of exclusion from class will be taken,” the district said in a letter.

The district told parents it was “in the middle of a very difficult and progressively escalating situation to comply with State and California Department of Public Health mandates and our actual ability to enforce those mandates.”

California’s statewide order directing students and staff to wear masks in classrooms remains in effect, although Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration signaled this week that it is planning to relax the rule later this month.

One of the district’s largest high schools, Oak Ridge High School in El Dorado Hills, was the site of a large student walkout Tuesday in protest of the school mask mandate.

Jackson Molloy, a freshman at Oak Ridge, said the walkout was a result of a surge of students who overwhelmed a classroom designated for unmasked students.

Molloy said the number of students who decided to not wear masks continued to grow throughout the morning, eventually filling three classrooms. They were not provided instructional material, he said.

The number of students continued to grow to the point it spilled outside, swelling to about 800 students, he said.

“There were so many of us so they kind of let us out,” he said. “We weren’t going anywhere, we just weren’t going to comply.”

At lunch time, parents started driving by the school leaving pizza and sign making materials for students, Molloy said.

Videos on social media showed hundreds students in front of the school, holding signs and an American flag.

By the end of the school day, the district had issued the statement to parents saying there would be a “significant change” in student mask enforcement.

“We will continue to do our best to comply with the law,” the district said. “Our school liability carriers all warn us that if we take explicit action to defy State guidance we will be held liable and accountable for any such decision and in a very litigious society we have no legal protection.”

“Our liability carriers will not be held accountable for our willful defiance of the California Department of Public Health,” the statement said. “. . . We ask for your continued support as we seek to do our best in this time when we are not granted any local control and Sacramento holds all of the decision making authority.”

A district representative was not available for comment Tuesday evening.

“It honestly feels great,” Molloy said of the change in policy. “It makes me and all my friends feel like we stood for something and because we stood for something we made a change.”

Roseville Joint Union High School District in neighboring Placer County also changed its mask enforcement policy Tuesday, enacting an optional mask policy.

In a resolution unanimously passed by the district’s Board of Trustees last week, the district opted to make masking the choice of parents and students saying the governor’s mandate was “ill advised.”

“As wearing a mask is a choice for students in our district, we have been legally advised that CDPH does not require that individuals, such as teachers or school staff, enforce the mandate and therefore, cannot be held liable,” Superintendent John Becker said in an email.

This story was originally published February 15, 2022 at 5:52 PM.