TOLEDO, Ohio — In a decision made by the Washington Local Schools board of education Wednesday night, all K-12 students will be required to wear face masks in the classroom starting Monday.
The district's superintendent, Dr. Kadee Anstadt, said the delta variant is growing, and it's spreading among our kids.
"There are people that say wait for the data to tell us if we need to put masks on and I'll tell you I never want data to tell me I should've made a mask mandate earlier," Anstadt said.
Dr. Anstadt believes around 15% of students are vaccinated, which is why she said wearing a mask is so important.
"There are low vaccination rates, high infection rates within our community," she said. "If you look at our zip codes, those are all zip codes that are seeing really high incidents."
Dr. Anstadt said while she hopes this mask mandate is only temporary, it is here to stay for now, and students' families are reacting.
One grandfather said he wants masks until a vaccine is available for all kids.
"You don't know who goes and sees who and who's gotten vaccinated," said Joe Crociata. "They don't need to be carrying it back to the school and with masks on, they're protected from it at least a little bit."
Though not everyone agrees with the mask mandate. A grandmother to another student said she's totally against the decision.
"He was wearing the mask last year and every time he came out it was soaked, and there's been so many studies about the mask that have all kinds of diseases on the mask," Donna Flaczinski said. "I don't think they should be wearing them."