Teachers Union Will Force L.A. Kids to Wear Masks Even as Mandate Ends

The United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) union will compel children in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to continue wearing masks to school Monday even as the county’s mask mandate expires and other districts will drop masks.

As Breitbart News reported earlier this month, L.A. County public health officials announced that the school mask mandate would end after March 11, shortly after the State of California announced that it was lifting school mask mandates statewide.

Several school districts in the county announced that they would end the mask mandates. But UTLA wanted to continue the mandates in LAUSD schools, pointing to a collective bargaining process that, it said, had to be followed before any changes.

LAUSD said in a statement on Friday that it needed to follow the “science” carefully before it allowed the mandate to end in its schools, though what is actually going on is that it is negotiating with the UTLA about when masks can be removed.

The science that informed the on-ramp to the protective protocols currently in place, which have ensured the well-being of our students and workforce, must, too, inform the off-ramp as health conditions improve. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/7VoatYwnYd

— Los Angeles Unified (@LASchools) March 12, 2022

The Los Angeles Daily News reported:

Earlier in the afternoon [Friday], the district had met with United Teachers Los Angeles to negotiate health-and-safety protocols at the district’s request, according to the teachers union. The district cannot lift its indoor masking mandate without bargaining with UTLA, with whom it has an agreement.

“UTLA did not provide a counterproposal today, but a follow-up session is scheduled for Wednesday, March 16,” UTLA said in a statement after the meeting.

…

New York City schools stopped requiring students to wear masks this week, and students in Seattle will have the option of shedding their face coverings starting Monday.

Chicago, the nation’s third largest school district, has also announced plans to lift its mandate on Monday. After its announcement, however, the teachers union filed an unfair labor practice charge, claiming the decision violates an agreement with the union.

Los Angeles schools were among the last in the country to reopen, with most closed for more than a year during the pandemic.

Meanwhile, on Twitter, the UTLA’s official account devoted much of its effort late last week to supporting a strike by public school teachers in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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