Some Christian Schools Choosing To Make Mask-Wearing Voluntary For Students

A small Christian school in Michigan drew attention this week after it fired a music teacher who had expressed concerns about violating COVID-19 safety guidelines, highlighting possible broad problems as many schools throughout the nation reopen during a pandemic.

Teacher Nathan Smith told public radio station Michigan Radio that he was concerned about safety violations at Oakdale Academy, a grades K-12 school with about 200 students located about 35 miles from Detroit. When he brought the concerns up with the school's headmaster, it was made clear to Smith that the school would rather close its doors "than open with too many restrictions,” he said.

Oakdale Academy's mask-wearing policy is reportedly voluntary and the school noted that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's "actions [over a mask mandate] are being challenged in court.” The headmaster reportedly described mask-wearing as "divisive" and that he did "not want to allow our enemy Satan" to gain a foothold in the school.

Rejecting safety guidelines has not been limited to one small Christian school. Reports surfaced in late August that at least three people at Christian Collegiate Academy in Gulfport, Mississippi, tested positive for COVID-19, with the school ignoring state orders that require masks to be worn. In Illinois, Parkview Christian Academy in Yorkville, said it would make masks optional plans in the school year while Gov. J.B.Pritzker sues to mandate face coverings in schools.

Questions over the following of safety guidelines had surrounded private and public schools for much of the summer.

The dismissiveness of wearing masks seems to bear some similarities to the movement anti-vaxxers waged in May 2019. California's 27 Waldorf schools had very low vaccination rates for measles, with parents skeptical of medicine and science.

As Politico noted in July, "The same parents who loudly opposed school vaccine requirements in Sacramento last year are turning their attention to mask recommendations that districts are considering as they figure out how to send kids back to the classroom in the middle of a pandemic."