ROANOKE COUNTY, Va. – Roanoke County will continue to require masks for its students for the next few weeks.
During the Jan. 27 meeting, the Roanoke County School Board voted 4-1 that masks will still be required in schools; however, starting Feb. 14, parents have the opportunity to opt out of masking for their kids.
Officials said they are waiting for the Virginia Supreme Court to make masking optional and that if the change comes before Feb. 14, the board will move to make masks optional then.
[LIST: Which schools are requiring masks and which are not across Southwest, Central Virginia]
During the hours-long meeting, 70 students, parents and teachers voiced their thoughts on if they wanted to see masks become optional or remain mandatory.
Some parents cited their right to make decisions for their own children, while some local health care workers begged the school board to keep masks mandatory, concerned about overloading already stressed hospitals.
“We solely as parents should decide what is best for our own child,” said one parent.
“I’m nervous because right now COVID is the worst I have ever seen it, as of today. I’m here to beg you to delay, making masks optional until the COVID numbers have gone down in our area,” said another parent.
The reason the board decided to wait until Feb. 14 to make this change is to give parents some time to see if parents want to keep their children in school or have them attend virtually.
Also, the delay in making masks optional allows the school division time to put other mitigation options in place.