Peter Merrill, Deputy News Editor
Senate Bill 514, also known as the Unmask Georgia Students Act, would allow K-12 students to opt out of wearing masks in public school has moved through the Georgia state senate. If passed, this bill would be in effect until 2027, according to Abbie Vegter, assistant professor of political science.
“It’s basically an opportunity for parents to opt out of mask mandates,” said Vegter. “The word mandate doesn’t really seem to apply in a case where you can opt out of it for any reason without having to prove a deeply held belief, or anything of that nature.”
Vegter said that she believed a controversy about parental authority prompted the writing of this bill. Many parents have vocalized their opinion that they should be in charge of their children’s choice to wear masks.
Representatives in Republican dominated areas, have already passed local laws that annul mask mandates, while Democratic hubs have largely followed the law of the state. The previously passed laws have allowed people to start dicating for themselves whether or not they want to wear a mask. As a result, the implementation of the proposed law will not have much of an effect.
“The thing with Covid restrictions right now in the Georgia state legislature is that its an election year, so we see a lot of representatives making strong political statements through their stance on various Covid protocols,” Vegter said. “I’m not saying they’re not deeply held beliefs, but for a lot of them, their stance is core to their reelection campaign coming up this fall and so they want to take strong stances on them, and so the Georgia bill that bans these mask mandates is a perfect opportunity for them to signal to their constituents.”
Republican State Senator Jeff Mullis also proposed Senate Bill 345, which would ban schools from seeking vaccination records. The Republican party also backs this bill and have pushed it through the state senate.
Senior Claire Rowan, a student teacher at Elm Street Elementary School, works with first graders. She said that students have gotten more used to wearing masks, although they sometimes wore them under the nose.
“It’s become kind of second nature to them,” Rowan said. “Sometimes if they forget, they’ll bring it up, they’ll ask.”
Currently masks are not required at Elm Street Elementary and parents can decide whether or not their child will wear a mask. Rowan said that students’ desks were spread out to slow the spread of Covid-19. To encourage social interaction and prevent severe spread, students have been grouped into clumps so that if somebody in that group gets sick, the whole class will not have to quarantine.
“I think that [the impact of this system] depends on how teachers do it,” Rowan said. “Not at Elm Street, but at other schools I’ve seen where, it was very much, ‘you sit in your seat, don’t play with your friend, don’t talk to your friend.’ They had dividers between the desks so you couldn’t even see the person sitting next to you. I could see how that could really negatively impact kids. I think now teachers are really working hard to still provide an enriching environment not only academically, but socially.”
On March 1, 32 Republicans and 1 Democrat voted for the bill 514, with 19 Democrats dissenting. The bill will now move onto the House of Representatives, where it is likely to pass due to its Republican majority. Gov. Brian Kemp has voiced his support of the bill, so it is not likely he will veto it.