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'We Don't Want To Bring It Home': Arizona Parents, Students Share Why They Want Masks At School
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Maria Tsinnijinnie
Maria Tsinnijinnie is happy that her daughter Liliana Dulaney is attending a Phoenix Union High School District since it requires masks.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic began, high student Liliana Dulaney was studying ballet at the Arizona School for the Arts, a Phoenix charter school. But after COVID-19 struck, dance practices and performances came to a halt.
“She went from a dance day of three to four hours a night to nothing," said her mother Maria Tsinnijinnie.
This forced the teen to reconsider her goals.
“It was hard to watch her go through the grief of losing ballet and then we just kind of ultimately made the decision that now she kind of wanted to just be a regular kid and go to regular school and have regular kid experiences," Tsinnijinnie said.
Tsinnijinnie is feeling more hopeful for her daughter since her new school district, Phoenix Union High School, announced in late July that it would require masks despite a new Arizona law that is trying to ban mask mandates at K-12 public schools.
Gov. Doug Ducey, who signed the bill, and the Republican state lawmakers that attached this legislation to the state budget say schools should be mandating masks, and the decision should be left to parents.
But Phoenix Union Superintendent Chad Gestson decided to break away from the governor and lawmakers' wishes just before the start of their school year.
“We have no choice but to enforce what medical experts tell us is the way to keep our campuses safe," Gestson said in a press conference announcing the school policy. "What legal implications this might have that’s not my responsibility. My responsibility is to educate our kids and keep our community safe.”
Tsinnijinnie was thankful for the news.
“I think that at the end of the day, if you were to give me the choice do I send my kid to school in a mask or have her stay home and quarantine every time she’s exposed, I think that’s the choice that we make with not wearing masks," she said.
For her daughter, Liliana Dulaney, now a senior at Central High School, masks have become as normal as any other piece of clothing she wears.
“It’s so weird. I can’t even imagine a word without masks now," the 17-year-old said.
In fact, she thinks masks have already spared her from possible exposure when a friend recently had flu-like symptoms. Dulaney's friend didn’t get tested but did take one day off school.
“He did come back today and he was like, ‘Yeah I don’t have body aches and I was like I’m so glad we are wearing masks,'” she said.
Stormy Haffey
Stormy Haffey is a teacher in the Chandler Unified School District where her kids, Mars and Addie, are students. Haffey is disappointed that the district is not requiring masks.
At least nine school districts across Arizona have joined Phoenix Union in requiring masks in schools. But the Chandler Unified School District located in a Phoenix suburb is not one of them.
“Honestly it’s very concerning," said Stormy Haffey, a Chandler teacher.
Her kids Mars and Addie Haffey are also students in the district. At Mar’s middle school, she said some teachers wear masks and in her eighth class, "a little less than half of students." The situation is similar at Addie's elementary school.
They’ve seen more people mask up since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended masks for all in K-12 schools. But Stormy is concerned about what will happen later in the school year
“We don't want to bring it home to my husband who's a type one diabetic or my mom who battled COVID last year, and both my parents did actually, and they barely survived," she said.
Haffey blames the governor and the Arizona Legislature for tying schools’ hands.
In the meantime, COVID-19 outbreaks have already led to closures of classes in rural and metro areas of the state. The Chandler district had 166 active COVID-19 cases, as of Thursday.
Tsinnijinnie hopes Phoenix Union's mask requirement will make a difference.
"What I really want is my kid to have a normal senior life because she's only had a freshman year of high school that was typical," she said.
But whether Phoenix Union and others will be able to keep their mask requirements in place remains to be seen. Phoenix Union's mask requirement is already being challenged in court by a high school biology teacher in the district. The outcome of the case could impact the rest of the school year.
