Pittsburgh Public Schools Have Reinstated Mask Mandates

Pittsburgh Public Schools announced on May 12 that face masks were mandatory for all students, teachers, and visitors in all of their buildings with less than a month left in school.

Pittsburgh Public Schools announced via Facebook on May 12 that face masks were required for all employees, visitors, and students effective May 12.

The district said that’s because Allegheny County has moved into the medium COVID-19 transmission level, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

PPS district is located in Allegheny County in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They are currently at a “medium” level. Notice how the CDC says “may choose to mask”. Why are the schools taking away children’s and teachers’ right to choose?

The mandatory masking comes just two weeks after PPS made masks optional on April 29. The district was one of the last to keep a mask requirement for students and staff members in the region.

City students will also be required to wear masks on school buses. At events that take place at external locations, such as proms at hotel ballrooms, masking will depend on the policy of those facilities.  

Two local school districts have reimplemented mask requirements amid rising COVID-19 cases in Allegheny County.

Less than two weeks after making masks optional across PPS, the district is bringing back its mandate.

And students and staff at the Woodland Hills School District, which ended its universal indoor mask requirement in March, will also have to wear face coverings for the next 10 days. 

When the county is at a medium or high level, all students and employees must wear masks, with some exceptions for performing arts students. Those students will be required to take part in pool testing.

The new system greatly changes the look of the CDC’s risk map and puts more than 70% of the U.S. population in counties where the coronavirus is posing a low or medium threat to hospitals.

PPS follows in the flip-flopping footsteps of Philadelphia.

CAPA and Colfax, two Pittsburgh Public Schools, were closed this week due to Covid case numbers.