Parents claim that despite the lack of a state government requirement, children are being forced to wear face masks in Victorian schools.
The Daniel Andrews administration has enacted a non-mandatory mask policy, giving Victorians the freedom to wear facial coverings or not, albeit it is highly recommended that they be used inside.
However, teachers are reportedly requiring pupils to wear masks and giving them out in class, going against parents’ preferences and confusing many young children.
One father said his son, who is in grade four at a Melbourne primary school, was reduced to tears after he was told to wear a mask.
‘I’d told my son he didn’t have to wear one but he said he said he had to and that at school there’s no choice and that kids have to do what they are told,’ the parent told the Herald Sun.
‘The state government hasn’t mandated masks in schools but schools are mandating it.’
Another parent, whose child attends a school in the city’s inner-west, said that students were forced to wear masks by a teacher.
While one primary school in Melbourne’s southeast provides them to pupils as they enter the classroom, Taylor’s Lakes Primary School allegedly notified parents that children eight and older “should be wearing masks at school.”
Some independent and private colleges have adopted an even stricter stance by imposing their own mask regulations on campus.
Students and employees in years four and above at Gippsland Grammar are required to wear masks indoors, whereas students in years five and up are subject to the similar requirement at Overnewton College.
Overnewton College wrote in a letter to parents that it was “within our ability, as an independent school, to impose this policy for our community and this is the choice that we have taken.”
The uncertainty comes as the state battles its winter Covid epidemic and interim chief health officer Ben Cowie released guidance this week advocating masks be mandatory in schools that Victorians work from home.
However, Premier Daniel Andrews on Wednesday night said the current Covid restrictions are unlikely to be tightened anytime soon.
‘There’s no mandate. It’s not compulsory. There’s no sanction if you didn’t (wear a mask), it’s strongly recommended. Nothing more, nothing less. That’s the fact of it,’ he said.
‘If you’re asking me if it’s my view that these rules are going to change, no they’ve only just been made.
‘I think it’s fair to say … you’re not going to see mask mandates anywhere in the country.
‘But you will see consistent advice from the national government and state and territory governments that it’s highly recommended that people wear masks inside, people act on their symptoms, get tested and isolate.’
As case numbers nationwide continue to rise due to more infectious strains of Covid, calls have been growing for greater mask use in public areas.
The situation has sparked debate among health professionals and state and federal leaders as they negotiate how Australia will learn to live with the virus.
Australian Medical Association president Dr Omar Khorshid, a Perth-based hip and knee surgeon, said rules for mask wearing will ‘quite likely’ need to be brought in and enforced in order to control the latest virus outbreak.
‘Everything we’ve heard from the federal government and various state health ministers and premiers is that they’re not about to introduce mandates,’ he told The Guardian.
‘But governments are ultimately going to be held to account by the public for their failure to navigate this whole process. At some point, I think it’s quite likely we will have a period of mask mandates in certain states.’
However, Anthony Albanese said mental health has been one of the reasons for why broad mask mandates haven’t been reintroduced.
‘There are two things at play. One is mental health considerations … the imposition of controls on people’s behaviours has an impact of people’s health, that’s just a reality,’ he told The Project on Wednesday.
‘Particularly young people, we’re seeing an increasing problematic increase in incidents of severe consequence when it comes to young people’s health.’
The second component in the health recommendations, according to the prime minister, was the widespread use of Covid vaccines and anti-viral medications.
‘The big difference between now and say a year or 18 months ago, is the level of vaccinations which are out there, that is making an enormous difference,’ he said.
‘Whilst the numbers of people who are getting infected by Covid are expected to peak in coming weeks and then go down towards September … the consequences are less, because if you are vaccinated, you have a level of protection which is there.’
While mask mandates have been put in place in some high-risk settings, such as public transport in certain jurisdictions, Mr Albanese said in many cases people weren’t wearing masks in those locations.
It comes as chief medical officer Paul Kelly said businesses should look at working-from-home plans for employees in a bid to stem the rise in infections.
As a result of the epidemic, Mr. Albanese claimed earlier on Wednesday that many firms have already adapted to working from home models, albeit this may not always be the case for other industries.
More employees working from home benefits both the employer and the employee in many firms, but we also need to be aware that doing so has drawbacks.
According to the most recent immunization statistics, approximately 100,000 persons received a fourth dosage of the Covid vaccine in the previous day.
A fourth dosage has been administered to over one-third of the eligible population over the age of 30, and 63.7% of Australians over the age of 65 have gotten their second booster.
There were more than 53,000 new virus cases reported on Wednesday, along with 90 deaths.