District 70 officials ask Pueblo Board of Health to remove mask mandate in letter
PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) -- In a letter sent to the Pueblo Board of Health Friday morning, District 70 officials asked the Board of Health to "immediately remove these mandates and leave these decisions to the district."
The letter, signed by five new District 70 School Board members, said "it is becoming evident within our schools that these measures are detrimental to our children."
Anne Ochs, the newly elected D70 Board President said, "We have not received any data from the health department on how well the masking is working within the district, and thats why I said they can't compare the district masking to the community."
The members said COVID-19 cases are trending downward in Pueblo County, but even if they weren't, "forcing the schools to adhere to a mandate that would never be influential enough to change the trend of the community caseload is unrealistic," the letter says.
Ochs told KRDO the district did not push for a Public Health Mask Order in August, rather they told the Pueblo Board of Health, they would comply with the order.
"We did not push for it though, and that is where I think we differ from District 60 quite a bit," Ochs said.
The letter questions masks preventing the spread of the virus, claiming the mandate is "unable to demonstrate the positive effectiveness of masks."
"I don't necessarily see that the masks have helped prevent the spread because the numbers still went up no matter what we have done," Ochs said.
However, Pueblo Health Medical Officer, Chris Urbina is in favor of keeping the Public Health Order. He says masks are one of many mitigation efforts that are effective for schools.
"I am still in favor of keeping the Public Health Order in place because I do think, despite what we were from a very vocal small number of folks, I still think it works," Urbina said.
A Board of Health work session was held Friday. In that meeting, the letter was openly discussed and health officials discussed a number of options in response.
The first would be keeping the Public Health Order in place as is. Below are the guidelines Public Health Director Randy Evetts presented to the Board of Health.
The second option is a revised Public Health Order. This option was well received by several Board of Health members in attendance.
Option three is to end the Public Health Order entirely. Below are changes that would take place if it was enacted.
No vote on the Public Health Order is expected until their next meeting on December 23rd.
