On Thursday Aug. 9, Chandler Unified School District held a vote on mask mandating in schools. 

The mask mandate was voted against three to two. There are parents who are not happy with this decision and in an azfamily article, a quote by Dr. Joseph Wong says, “To the parents that are not asking their kids to wear a masks, I am trying to wrap my head around that reason and there hasn’t been a reason they’ve provided yet.” which shows that this parent and doctor is not able to understand why this decision was made. 

After this decision, masks will not be required for both students and staff members. In a 12news article, Laura Love, a board member says, “It just kind of feels like our mitigation strategies don’t really have teeth from what I’m hearing from public health experts.” This is saying that Love thinks that the mitigation strategies in the schools do not have the authority they need to make people listen to them. Hamilton High school has the most cases in Chandler Unified School District, reaching over 100 cases and even after seeing these numbers, masks are not mandated. 

There are two possible reasons as to why Chandler Unified School District voted against masks. The first reason is that administrators want to keep the mitigation plans as is and don’t want to change anything. The second reason is that Chandler Unified School District does not want to lose the $11 million grant that Governor Doug Ducey said would be taken away if they put a mask mandate in place. In a survey that was taken by all Chandler Unified School District administration, 58 percent voted pro masks and 42 percent voted against masks but during the vote, the mask mandate was voted against.