The Haines School District in Haines is still mandating masks universally for students, staff, and visitors in the schools. This, in spite of the fact that there have only been 16 documented cases of Covid-19 in the small Southeast community.
The district also has other robust protocols, such as what some see as extreme testing of athletes, and quarantine rules in a community that has a had no confirmed cases in the past 14 days.
Haines is a community that is tightly knit and children play at each other’s homes routinely — without masks. But once they get to school, the masking rules apply, as they have since August.
The school’s travel mandate guidelines for students and staff are also draconian. After they have traveled, the school guidelines require unvaccinated students and staff to receive two negative Covid test before returning to school, and those who are unvaccinated or who refuse to test must stay home symptom free for at 10 days.:
“All staff and students who travel out of Alaska or in state to an identified high-alert area need to have a negative COVID test result from a test done within 72 hours prior to returning or upon arrival in Alaska; AND
- Fully vaccinated staff and students may return to school immediately with a negative test if they are symptom free.
- Unvaccinated staff and students may return to school on day 5 with a second negative test performed on or after that day as long as they are symptom free.
OR
- Staff or students who choose not to follow the testing protocol may return to school on day 11 after entering Alaska as long as they remain symptom free.”
“These definitely are not State of Alaska guidelines and are extremely discriminatory since both vaccinated and unvaccinated indicate proven to catch and spread the virus,” one parent noted to Must Read Alaska.
Many Haines parents have protested the mandates, writing letters, sending in petitions, and demanding parental choice, as they have in Anchorage — to no avail. The majority of the Haines school board members and Superintendent Roy Getchell have been unbending on the mask mandate for children.
Haines is a town of 1,863 residents and the school district has about 275 students. While the community government trends liberal, the population is somewhat more conservative. In the 2020 election, 40% of Haines Borough voters voted for Biden and 55% voted for Trump; 3% voted for Jesse Ventura, who was the Alaska Green Party’s choice for president.
The school board meets at 7 pm Dec. 7; the mask mandates are on the agenda. Links to the Zoom telephonic meeting are at this link.
The Haines School District Covid-19 “Operational Guidelines” are at this link.
