Tri-County Health mandates masks for all students, removes ability for counties to opt out
ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. — Undoing decisions by Douglas and Adams counties to opt out of a requirement for masks in schools, the Tri-County Health Department on Monday repealed the ability of counties to opt out of its public health orders and issued an order requiring masks for all people 2 and older in schools and child care settings.
The decisions at an afternoon meeting were made over the objections of Douglas County’s appointees to Tri-County’s board of health, the policy-making body for the health department that serves Douglas, Adams and Arapahoe counties.
“You are, and we are, collectively masking the wrong demographic,” said Kevin Bracken, who hours earlier was appointed as an interim board member from Douglas County. Bracken argued that COVID-19 hospitalization data doesn’t support requiring children to be masked.
“You’re punishing the children,” Bracken added.
Bracken referenced the hospitalization threshold that Tri-County Health had set in the spring that would have triggered the return of “COVID-19 dial” capacity restrictions on businesses, saying that hospitalizations haven’t reached that mark. Tri-County Health allowed its dial policy to expire in mid-August.
John Douglas, executive director of Tri-County Health, argued that evaluating coronavirus policy regarding schools is a separate matter.
Tri-County Health officials felt that the earlier hospitalization threshold — 2 per 100,000 residents, measured a certain way over a 14-day period — was an appropriate measure by which to guide restrictions that would have economic repercussions on businesses.
“This is a different matter now,” said Douglas, citing concerns about spread of COVID-19 in schools and the interruptions to in-person classes that it could cause.
Weeks of backlash
The issue of whether to require masks in schools has evoked contentious responses from community members in all three counties, with residents speaking in public meetings by the dozens in recent weeks about whether local government bodies should support mask requirements to combat COVID-19.
A crowd protested the initial Tri-County Health order on school masking outside the Adams County Government Center on Aug. 24 before the county commissioners voted 3-2 to opt out of that earlier mask order, which was approved Aug. 17 and took effect Aug. 23.
Several dozen people protested outside the Arapahoe County administration building on Monday ahead of a preliminary discussion by that county’s leaders on whether it should opt out of that earlier Tri-County order, a choice now removed by Tri-County’s action later that day.
The three Douglas County commissioners unanimously approved a decision to opt out of the initial order on Aug. 19.
That order required masks for all children aged 2 through 11 years old — and all the individuals working or interacting with those children — in all indoor school and child-care settings in the three counties. Children under 12 are not currently to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
The Tri-County board of health in its afternoon meeting Monday rescinded that order and approved a similar order that expands the mandate for indoor school and child care settings: The agency now requires all individuals 2 and older to wear masks in those places.
County sought to stop initial order
The health agency’s special meeting came shortly after Douglas County officials aired complaints about the process by which the Tri-County board of health approved the initial mask order.
The county was seeking to overturn the order, claiming that the board of health violated open meetings law by deliberating during executive session, or a closed-door meeting, in a way that went outside the scope of the narrow discussions executive sessions are intended to include. Such sessions are known to discuss legal questions, for example.
Tri-County’s board of health is the policy-making body for the agency, with nine seats on the board — three each representing Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas counties.
Repealing the earlier mask order and reissuing another effectively allowed the board of health to sidestep Douglas County’s complaints about the process, at least for purposes of keeping a mask mandate in place.
School districts, schools and childcare facilities weren’t required to follow the earlier mask order if their county leaders opted out, but they could still choose to do so, according to Tri-County, and several did.
Douglas County School District Superintendent Corey Wise had said the district must follow the health order, regardless of whether county commissioners opted out. In a letter to the community, he cited district policy that states Douglas County Schools will follow the guidance of local and state public health agencies in responding to common communicable disease.
At the time of the Adams County commissioners’ decision to opt out of the earlier order, several districts in Adams County already required masks for young students.