Chaos and confusion: Back to school turns ugly as Delta rages

“It’s a terrible position to be in,” Dan Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, said in an interview. “We have a huge crisis and nobody wants to make a decision … You’re leaving superintendents wide open to fall to pressure from their community.”

Viral videos of parents shouting obscenities during school board meetings, recall votes for board members — even death threats — underscore the pressure school leaders face as they contend with a virus far more contagious than what circulated last year.

The prospect of waves of school closures or, worse, a children’s pandemic, is a nightmare for the Biden administration, which hoped July Fourth would mark the beginning of the end of the pandemic.

Instead, it marked the beginning of the latest wave. The number of daily infections is up sixfold since the beginning of July, leading to the prospect of another year of lost learning, widening socioeconomic and racial gaps and parents forced to miss work so they can stay home with their kids.

“With the highly contagious Delta variant spreading and most kids not immune, it’s a perfect recipe for transmission in schools,” said Thomas Dobbs, Mississippi’s state health officer.

Ash Fork, a small district in Arizona, canceled classes just days after school opened because several teachers tested positive or were caring for someone who did.

A Mississippi school district on Friday told parents that two high schools will go remote “due to the high transmission rate of COVID-19.” On Tuesday, the district announced its middle school would as well.

And on Friday, the Austin Independent School District in Texas, where cases are skyrocketing, announced a virtual option for children under 12 years old because they are ineligible for the vaccine.

That move comes even as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, said the state won’t count virtual attendance when it doles out school funding, meaning the district is risking millions of dollars.

It’s one of several examples where school leaders, at odds with Republican politicians, insist students and staff wear masks even if new laws prohibit them from doing so.

Phoenix school officials announced this past week they will require masks, defying state law and Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey.

“It was unconscionable and very short-sighted of our legislature and governor to take steps to ban mask mandates,” said Kathy Hoffman, a Democrat and Arizona’s elected superintendent of public instruction.“I talk to school leaders who have said their hands are tied, they’re frustrated, and they are worried. They’re worried about outbreaks, they’re worried about having to send kids home to quarantine when that’s the last thing they want to do.”

Officials in Broward County, Fla. — home to one of the nation’s largest school districts — announced Monday that they were abandoning plans to require masks only five days after the school board voted unanimously to make them mandatory. The whiplash came after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday issued an executive order allowing parents or guardians to choose whether their child wears a mask in schools, and granted the state power to withhold funding from schools requiring masks.

The president on Tuesday chastised governors who’d blocked mask mandates.

“I say to these governors: ‘Please help,’” Biden said. “If you aren’t going to help, at least get out of the way of the people who are trying to do the right thing.”

Mark Lane, the superintendent in Decorah, a small town in northeast Iowa — where Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds recently praised a law she signed in May that bars local officials from enacting mask requirements — said the most challenging dynamic of the new school year is the loss of control.

Lane said that he only had to cancel one event last year — thanks, in part, to masks. Now, he worries that everything from a fall football game to a school musical could seed an outbreak.

“I’m proud of what we did as a school district and how we managed this past school year. Then to enter this year feeling less in control of what we’re going to do than a year ago is just weird,” he said. “I didn’t think we would be here.”

Of the nation’s 200 largest school districts, 69 are mandating masks, according to Dennis Roche, co-founder of Burbio, which aggregates school data. Districts around D.C., including Arlington, Fairfax, Montgomery and Prince George, are mandating masks. So is New York City, which runs the nation’s largest school system.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics both recommend face coverings in school, but the mitigation measure has become, for many, a personal affront on freedom.

Some of the same parents and Facebook groups opposing school closures and required masking are also opposing antiracism education in their schools, creating powerful conservative organizations focused on changing policies at the local level.

“The amount of letters we get, and speakers we get, just parroting misinformation from the internet is really disheartening,” said Tom Lando, a board member of the Chico Unified School District in northern California who is facing a recall election. “It’s like, ‘we Googled why masks were bad, and we copied and pasted and added a few cuss words.’”

Clovis Unified in Fresno County, Calif., voted last week to give parents the option to exempt their children from wearing masks, which California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is facing his own recall, mandated last month.

Other small school districts are scrambling to draft resolutions, attempting to regain local control over the decision, pointing to demand for “parental choice” and a “return to normalcy.”

The CDC, in addition to masks, suggests that students remain 3 feet apart and schools regularly screen students and staff for symptoms, but these recommendations are merely guidance, leading to a hodgepodge of rules playing out across the various states.

Students in Jackson, Mississippi, have a mask mandate, but those in nearby Rankin County School District do not. In North Carolina, Durham students must wear face coverings and remain at least 3 feet apart. But in Gaston County — outside of Charlotte — students can go mask free.

“School officials are picking from a buffet of protections,” said Brian Castrucci, president of the de Beaumont Foundation, a public health policy and charitable organization. “State by state, community by community … We’ve created an environment in the U.S. that is perfect for the perpetuation of the pandemic.”

The Delta variant — which is far more contagious than earlier strains — is a wrinkle few planned for and it’s forced dozens of last-minute changes.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, on Monday announced he was reinstating a statewide mask mandate in all indoor locations, including K-12 schools and colleges.

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, is calling the Legislature back in session and imploring them to amend a law that he signed so that district leaders can decide for themselves whether to implement a mask requirement.

In some states, officials are sitting on their hands waiting for guidance on everything from quarantining to remote learning.

The New York State Department of Education last week took the unusual step of calling out Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state health department for taking so long to provide guidance.

“The urgency and frustration you are feeling as September approaches is palpable and is shared by the Department,” wrote Betty Rosa, the state education commissioner.

The overarching sentiment from board members, principals and superintendents toggles between frustration and resignation. Many hoped that the worst of the pandemic was behind them and that the vaccines coupled with a year’s worth of experience would ensure that the coming school year marked a return to normal.

“Back in June, everyone thought that come September we will be back in business again,” Domenech, the head of the superintendents association, said. “That’s not the case any more. That optimism is gone.”

Rachel Roubein and Mackenzie Mays contributed to this report.