FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM MARCH 3, 2022 • THE QUEENS COURIER 17
City to lift mask mandate in schools on March 7
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Th e statewide mask mandate in schools
expired on Wednesday, March 2, and New
York City plans to lift its requirement on
March 7 if cases remain low, the governor
and mayor said Sunday, Feb. 27.
Governor Kathy Hochul fi rst announced
her plans to drop the rules for face coverings
Adams doubles down on student, school safety
BY ISABEL SONG BEER
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Mayor Eric Adams doubled down on his
decision to prioritize student and school
safety using revolutionary new safety technology
to prevent school violence and reiterated
his commitment to ensuring safety
for all schoolchildren in the city.
During a press conference on Feb. 23,
Mayor Adams commented on his soonto
be-announced plan for implementing
a new security device for testing that
allows law enforcement to identify guns
and weapons in a “humane way.”
“If we see the need to make modifi cations,
we are open to doing that,” Adams
said during the press conference. “We
must be smarter. I’m going to be rolling
out in a few days a device that we are testing
that allows us in a humane way to identify
guns and weapons. Everyone is asking
about this device, but we want to make
sure we test it properly and we are currently
in the process of testing it, and we are
going to place it in schools so we can do a
better job at identifying weapons.”
Th is announcement follows an incident
at New York City Lab Middle School
for Collaborative Studies in Chelsea,
Manhattan, where a student was apprehended
with a backpack full of weapons.
Many families in schools across NYC
have had serious concerns with safety in
schools, on top of contending with student
health during a global pandemic.
In response to these concerns, the
NYC Department of Education issued a
statement on Feb. 3.
“Bullying has no place in our schools,
and all incidents of bullying should be
immediately reported to a caring adult at
the school or through our online complaint
portal,” the statement read. “Our
schools must be sanctuaries for our young
people as they grow academically and
socially, and our school staff work handin
hand every day with outstanding School
Safety Agents to provide safe, supportive
environments for every student. We’ve
instituted a range of measures to support
the needs and safety of both students and
the school community, including working
with Youth Community Offi cers and hiring
additional school aides, social workers
and sub paraprofessionals.”
Even before his inauguration, Mayor
Adams was adamant on prioritizing the
safety of students in schools, saying he
would up the ante on security measures
to combat weapons on campus and violence.
“I was one of the few candidates that
did not support removing school safety
agents,” Adams said during the press conference.
“I’m a big believer in them. Th ey
serve a major role and if we feel the need to
boost the numbers we are going to do so.”
Following this statement, Mayor Adams
was asked about the possibility that students
may be bringing weapons to school
because they themselves don’t feel safe and
feel the need to take their safety into their
own hands.
In response to this, Mayor Adams said
he found the notion of students bringing
weapons to school on the basis of selfdefense
an unnecessary and unsafe move.
“I hear that oft en students bringing
weapons intended for self-defense, and
I sat down with a group of rappers that
were in the drill rap industry and they
stated that many people are carrying guns
because they feel afraid, and I said to them,
‘Th at is not acceptable. I am not going to
tolerate that. I am not going to reason you
carrying a weapon just because you feel
afraid.’ My job is to make everybody feel
safe, but we are not going to give in to the
belief that if we feel afraid that we are going
to carry a gun.”
as COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations
have dropped over the past
month and following new guidance from
Washington.
“My friends, the day has come. Today
we are going to be announcing that we’ll
be lift ing the statewide mask requirement
in schools,” Hochul said during the Feb. 27
press conference held in Albany.
State offi cials chose to give schools
and PTAs enough time to get ready for
the changes aft er the federal Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention dropped
its new guidance Friday to determine
COVID-19 prevention measures.
Th e state will leave it up to local counties
whether they still want to keep masks on
inside schools, the governor said, especially
in those areas of the Empire State where
infection rates remain higher.
“We will allow them the fl exibility to
determine what’s best for their county,”
Hochul said. “We would encourage them
to take a look at this and follow the CDC
but this will no longer be a mandate.”
Mayor Eric Adams released a statement
saying that the city plans to end
both indoor masking for schools and its
requirements to show proof of vaccination
at businesses — also known as Key2NYC
— if case counts remain low this week.
“At the end of this week, we will evaluate
the numbers and make a fi nal announcement
on Friday,” Adams said. “If we see
no unforeseen spikes and our numbers
continue to show a low level of risk,
New York City will remove the indoor
mask mandate for public schoolchildren,
eff ective next Monday, March 7.”
“Additionally, New York City’s
numbers continue to go down day aft er
day, so, as long as COVID indicators show
a low level of risk and we see no surprises
this week, on Monday, March 7, we will
also lift Key2NYC requirements,” hizzoner
said. “Th is will give business owners the
time to adapt and will allow us to ensure
we are making the best public health
decisions for the people of New York.”
New York City offi cials announced
that they would lift the outdoor
mask mandate for schools Monday,
Feb. 28.
Th e CDC now groups areas into
three “community levels” with
varying risk depending on infection
rates, hospitalizations and hospital
bed capacity — low, medium or high —
and the agency only recommends indoor
mask requirements at the high level.
Statewide COVID-19 infections have
dropped from a peak of more than 90,000
in early January to 1,671 as of Saturday, Feb.
26, and the numbers have trended down
for 51 days, according to the governor.
Cases among children aged 5-18 across
a seven-day average plummeted from
14,167 on Jan. 10 to 229 on Feb. 26 — the
lowest they’ve been since July.
Hospitalizations of New Yorkers that
age group are also down from a peak of
38 on Jan. 8 to seven as of Saturday.
However, vaccination rates among the
youngest eligible kids aged 5-11 continue
to lag behind their older counterparts
with only one in three having gotten
two doses of shots, compared to almost
three-quarters of 12- to 17-year-olds.
Masks will continue to be required
in some settings, including healthcare
and group home facilities,
correctional facilities, public transit and
airports, as well as shelters, but Hochul
said the state might relax the rules in
those spaces as well if the data warrants it.
“I’ve called for a review of our cases
in these specific settings and within
a short time we’ll have an analysis
of whether or not, in fact, these are
areas that remain vulnerable or whether
or not there’s been a plateauing and
then a decline in cases over a similar
amount of time,” she said. “So
I just want to make sure we have
all the data available before we
would end masks in these categories
as well.”
Hochul in February said she
would wait until aft er the
mid-winter break to determine
whether to keep the
indoor masking requirement, after letting
mandate for face coverings inside
businesses expire on Feb. 10.
Mike Groll/Offi ce of Governor Kathy Hochul
Governor Kathy Hochul announced the end of the
indoor mask mandate in schools during a press
conference in Albany on Feb. 27.
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