The New Hampshire State Senate voted 14-10 today to advance a bill already passed by the House prohibiting school boards and other public education agencies from adopting or enforcing mandated face coverings.
189:10-a Facial Covering Policy for Schools. The school board of a school district or the chief executive officer of a chartered public school or public academy shall not adopt, enforce, or implement a policy that requires students or members of the public to wear a facial covering for any purpose while on the school’s property unless the facial covering is necessary for a specific extracurricular or instructional purpose, or is required by some other section of the law.
This is the legislation at which, during testimony, Industrial Hygienist Stephen Petty spoke. You can listen to that excellent testimony here.
HB1131 now goes to Governor Sununu for his signature though I’ve not heard where Mr. Sununu stands. He did end mask mandates at the state level and stood firm on not imposing any more of them.
I think he will sign if he’s comfortable with the potential blowback from the Democrats who opposed this bill to the last man, woman, or whatever. (Not a single Democrat voted yea for HB1131, in either the House or the Senate.)
It is worth noting that his position until now has been to let local governments decide how to proceed despite there being no authorizing statute granting them this authority. He has also been fickle on what does or does not interfere with local control.
He’s a big fan of the state zoning board full of developers who can override local zoning rules put in place by local taxpayers. He’s a big supporter of preventing local meddling with the natural right to self-defense. But preventing unnecessary masking of students might be a bridge too far.
I’d recommend a refresher of Stephen Pettys remarks to his staff and himself. He’s an expert with far more training and skill than the average or even above average physician, epidemiologist, or anyone in the state’s employ who is not also an industrial hygenist.
Please listen. It’s not long. There is also a link to the handout he provided.
That goes for taxpayers who should send a polite note to his Excellency encouraging him to sign the HB1131.
[If you’d like to watch and listen, you can jump to that part of the NH State Senate hearing, here.]
And congratulations to the bill’s sponsors, including one of my reps, Melissa Blasek, and everyone who helped get HB1131 this far.
Oh, one final note. The bill doesn’t just take authority from schools and school boards to arbitrarily mask your kids.
II. Any person claiming to be aggrieved by a violation of this section, including the attorney general, may initiate a civil action against a school, school district, school board, or other public education agency in superior court for injunctive and other legal or equitable relief. Any person aggrieved by an act prohibited by this section may also pursue all of the remedies available under RSA 491, RSA 275-E, or any other applicable common law or statutory cause of action.
III. Violation of this section by an educator shall be considered a violation of the educator code of conduct that justifies disciplinary sanction by the state board of education. For the purposes of this section, “educator” means a professional employee of any school whose position requires certification by the state board pursuant to RSA 189:39.
2 Effective Date. This act shall take effect upon its passage.
Teeth!
