![The New Hanover County Board of Education voted again on the district's mask mandate Tuesday Feb. 1, 2022 after reinstating it in January. Just over a dozen people came out to speak against reinstating the mask mandate in New Hanover County Schools. [KEN BLEVINS/STARNEWS]](https://findamask.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/7a4b4823-51a2-4ad3-92f2-b74a1fee30f6-NCWIL-020122-NEWS-BOARD3.JPG)
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![The New Hanover County Board of Education voted again on the district's mask mandate Tuesday Feb. 1, 2022 after reinstating it in January. Just over a dozen people came out to speak against reinstating the mask mandate in New Hanover County Schools. [KEN BLEVINS/STARNEWS]](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2022/02/02/NSTN/7a4b4823-51a2-4ad3-92f2-b74a1fee30f6-NCWIL-020122-NEWS-BOARD3.JPG?width=660&height=464&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp)
The New Hanover County Board of Education Center erupted with protests Tuesday evening, causing the board to quickly move into a break after voting to keep its mask requirement through February.
Dozens of attendees advocating against requiring masks in schools yelled, waved signs and pointed fingers at the board as chaos ensued briefly in the boardroom.
“The board of education is not a qualification to make medical decision,” one parent yelled at board members as she left the building.
Several police officers stood in front of the board to encourage protesters to leave as they filed out while continuing to yell at the board following the 5-2 vote to maintain the mask requirement for another month.
The board struggled to carry on discussion about the mask vote during the meeting as audience members frequently cheered or shouted in response to board members’ comments, causing chairwoman Stephanie Kraybill to pause the discussion multiple times and ask the audience to be quiet.
“Folks, I really need you to let the conversation happen between our speaker and our board members so that we can hear, otherwise I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” Kraybill said at one point during the meeting as the board asked questions of Health and Human Services Director David Howard.
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Past coverage:New Hanover schools will once again require masks as omicron causes spike in cases
Arguments both for and against the mask requirement remained the same from previous months, with board members Pete Wildeboer and Nelson Beaulieu voting in favor of optional masking again.
Wildeboer argued the district is reporting less than 3% of students are currently out of school with COVID-19 and virtually no school-aged children are hospitalized with the virus, though the community-wide positivity rate is more than 30%. With questions arising around the effectiveness of masks, Wildeboer said he thinks it’s time for the board to give families the ability to choose whether to wear masks.
But other board members noted without a mask requirement, quarantines due to COVID exposures could skyrocket because of state requirements. Other districts without mask requirements have significantly higher quarantine rates than New Hanover County because of state expectations for addressing close contacts to people with COVID-19 infections.
“Masks, regardless of if you think they’re 100% effective or not, they are cutting down on our quarantines, and I want to see our kids in our classrooms with their teachers,” said board member Stefanie Adams.
Board members agreed no one wanted to continue requiring students to wear masks, but those who voted in favor of the requirement maintained the position that they would like to keep students in the classroom as much as possible, and to do that right now, that involves wearing masks.
Right now, COVID-19 cases in New Hanover County are beginning to plateau. Board members said they would be more inclined to lift the mask requirement if those numbers continue going down in the coming month.
The board will vote again in the monthly required vote on masks in March.
Reporter Sydney Hoover can be reached at 910-343-2339 or shoover@gannett.com.
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