August 20, 2021
The District’s optional mask mandate surely puts students, employees, families and the community at risk, as the pandemic rages and the positivity rate is over 20%. Orange County Public Schools has chosen to go against the recommendations of the CDC, the American Academy of Pediatrics and medical experts by establishing an opt-out mask mandate. The chart above shows the percentages of those students opting-out by grade level. They are significantly above the 4% estimate that the District was initially touting.
More disturbing are the charts, which breakdown the opt-out percentages by school. Some elementary schools where children are not even eligible for vaccines have over 20% of their student populations opting out of masks. These include:
- Columbia Elementary School- 28.5%
- Dommerich Elementary School – 22.2%
- Dr. Phillips Elementary School – 25.2%
- Lake Whitney Elementary School – 21.3%
- Summerlake Elementary School – 20.5%
- Whispering Oak Elementary School – 21.9%
- Windemere Eementary School – 30.8%
K-8 Schools with over 20% opting out include:
- Pershing – 22.4%
- Wedgefield School – 27.8%
Middle Schools
- Maitland Middle School – 21.4%
High Schools
- Simon Youth Academy – 28.6%
- Windemere High School – 21.%
Also, keep in mind that some teachers reported that there was not a system to collect notes and some were not opt-out checks were not inputted on Canvas so the accuracy may not be that good at some schools.
See the charts below to find your school:
