The Treasure Valley school year begins the way it ended last year. Parents are battling over whether a mask mandate should be enforced during the upcoming school year.

Never mind that we had so much optimism over a return to normal due to several vaccines made available to the American public. That optimism has been replaced by parents demanding their schools do not implement a mandatory mask mandate.  

Idaho Education News reports on the most recent board meeting of the Boise School District. Several parents banded together, urging the board not to reinstate the mandate. The board ignored their pleas passing a mask mandate for Boise Schools in a closed session on August 3rd.   Boise parents were not please forming their own group hoping to get the mandate overturned.

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West Ada currently has an optional policy, and like Boise, parents have formed a group working to keep masks optional.  You can read the details of West Ada's moves here. Caldwell has announced that masks will be optional at least at the beginning of the school year.  There has been no discussion that we have been made aware of concerning whether or not schools could begin to go back to virtual learning.

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Nurses and healthcare workers as the public to help them stop the vax mandate from local hospitals.

One Boise parent was so upset she told Idaho Education News that she plans to send them to school everyday wearing the color yellow.  Yellow is the color of the group Smile West Ada.  Parents said that they were not the only ones upset about the return to the mask wearing.  Several pointed out how angry their children react once the new policy was announced.

We'll continue to update this story as it develops.

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