TOMS RIVER, NJ – The Toms River Regional School District has been one of the staunchest opponents of the Phil Murphy school mask mandate and now, they’re paying for it according to the Star Ledger. District officials cited the high temperatures at the beginning of the school year as the reason why students were not required to wear face masks, but now, 217 students and 33 employees have tested positive for the virus, the paper reported today.
The district has 887 students now in COVID-19 quarantine with a higher rate of infection per student and staff than any other district in New Jersey.
School board member Joseph Nardini, a Republican has lead the charge against the Murphy mask mandate. In May, Nardini sent a letter of disapproval to the governor over the new school mask mandate.
“It is with respect and great hope for your sincere consideration that I request you repeal Executive Order 175 in time for the start of the 2021-2022 school year, and relieve our students, teachers, and staff members of the obligation to wear masks inside of school,” Nardini wrote. “Additionally, I ask that there be no separation of students based on vaccination status.”
Nardini also said he opposed face masks in the school districts upon students’ return to school in September.
“At this point, however, and certainly projecting to September, we believe masks are unnecessary,” Nardini said. “The vast majority of our staff have been fully vaccinated, and the risk that Covid-19 poses to our student population– many of whom will also be vaccinated heading into next year– is extremely low, and not inclusive of the more dramatic symptoms and health problems known to affect older adults.”
Ocean County, a predominantly Republican county has one of the lowest vaccination rates in New Jersey with just 45% of the eligible population vaccinated.
Toms River schools started the school year without a mask mandate, but on September 20th, the district reversed course and began enforcing facemasks for students.
Earlier this week, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy cited data from the CDC that showed school districts which adhere to the masking policy experience less COVID-19 cases than those who do not.
“The CDC looked at outbreak rates, from both Arizona specifically, and then more broadly, from more than 520 counties nationwide,” Murphy said. “In the case of Arizona, they found that schools without masking policies were three-and-a-half times more likely to have a school-based COVID outbreak than those schools, which had universal masking protocols in place. And in the second study, the CDC found that after a return to school, the rates of pediatric hospitalizations were more than double in counties where masks were not required in schools versus those where masks are required.”
The Toms River outbreak justifies Murphy’s mask mandate.
“As I’ve noted before, none of us, I promise you, none of us take any joy in requiring universal masking in our schools, and that these requirements are not permanent,” Murphy said. “But these data prove that until we get to a point where all of our school-age students are eligible to be vaccinated and they, in fact, get vaccinated, the benefits of masking as part of a layered approach to safety are inarguable.”
