Upper Darby School District will keep masks on

Students will continue to wear masks in the Upper Darby Scool District

DREXEL HILL, Pa. - Starting Monday, school districts in Pennsylvania were able to decide whether students and staff will be required to wear masks. Some districts have already decided to make masks optional.

The Upper Darby School District will stay put and require masks for now— until they can reach a threshold they are comfortable with.

Superintendent Daniel McGarry said they will continue to hold public meetings and give the parents the chance to share how they feel on the issue that has been a huge debate across the state and country.

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"We’d like to, over a two-week period of time, we’d like to see over 50 or fewer cases and positivity rate of five percent or less here in our area," said McGarry. "That would allow us to feel somewhat more comfortable because our vaccination rates among our student population - it’s really less than 20 percent."

A look at Delaware County’s number, as of Monday, showed they have around 12,000 cases per 100,000 people.

Bensalem Township School District, in Bucks County, and Oxford School District, in Chester County, said masks for students and faculty will be optional beginning Monday.

Donna Framo said her son won’t be going back, in person, until 90 percent of people are vaccinated. In the meantime, she doesn’t see the point of a mask mandate for the students that are in person.

"I feel like the teachers are wasting their time making the kids wear the masks correctly," Framo commented. "At this point we’ve gotten a lot of the kids vaccinated. They are getting vaccinated all the time constantly, so is it really effective? Probably not, at this point."

Joe Rainey said his kids don’t mind the masks and wants to see the mandate continue.

"Actually, they don’t mind," Rainey said. "They are fine with it. It doesn’t bother them, frankly speaking, and they are just glad to be in school and out of the virtual instruction."

Michelle Barnes said her son struggles with severe asthma and the masks make it worse. "I just hope that it will be lifted soon so the kids don’t have to keep struggling, when they are running around, playing in the gym it’s just a lot."

The Upper Darby School District has been meeting with staff, as well as home and school associations since October.

"These are the rules that I’m playing with as a commissioned officer in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the standards I have to meet to keep kids safe and staff safe and keep schools open," McGarry said.

District officials will have a meeting with staff on Friday to discuss where they are and Tuesday, December 21, they will have a public meeting that’s virtual and in person, at 6pm.