Kindergartners exempted from COVID-19 mask mandate, commission delays action on bars
Sedgwick County has quietly altered its mask mandate to no longer require kindergartners to mask up in school, it was revealed Wednesday.
The County Commission also decided Wednesday to delay action on one commissioner’s proposal to rescind an early curfew on bars and nightclubs and to make the county’s COVID-control orders, including the mask mandate, voluntary again.
During Wednesday’s meeting, the county released a rewrite of an order issued on Friday by Dr. Garold Minns, the county health officer and dean of the University of Kansas School of Medicine, Wichita.
The big change Minns made on Friday was pushing the curfew on bars and nightclubs back from midnight to 1 a.m. Numerous clubs have complained that they can’t make a go of it without their usual early a.m. revelry ending at 2.
Wednesday’s version of the order contained only one substantive change from the Friday order, the exemption for kindergartners from the mask mandate, said Justin Waggoner, assistant county counselor and the county’s legal point man on COVID-related issues.
The previous version of the order required masks for children ages 5 and up. But commissioners expressed concern that could lead to some kindergartners having to wear masks in their classrooms while younger pupils wouldn’t have to.
“This was something I thought was very confusing for the schools,” said Commissioner David Dennis.
The mask mandate now applies to first grade and up, regardless of the students’ age.
It’s unclear whether the county change will have any actual effect, because school districts ultimately decide whether and which of their students have to wear masks in class.
Also, the major school districts in the county, including Wichita USD 259, require children to be within a couple of weeks of their fifth birthday to start kindergarten.
USD 259 spokeswoman Susan Arensman said there are no 4-year-old kindergartners in Wichita schools, all kindergartners are required to wear masks and there are no plans to change that regardless of what the county does.
Other changes to the Friday order were mainly corrections of grammatical and typographical errors, Waggoner said.
The council also tabled an effort by Commissioner Jim Howell — who participated in the meeting by remote while recovering from COVID — to rein back Minn’s order.
The biggest change Howell proposed was to change the mask mandate from “shall” to “should,” which would have made mask-wearing voluntary again.
That would mostly revert county policy to what it was in early July, when the commission issued a “strong recommendation” that people wear masks to protect themselves and others from the coronavirus, but didn’t require it.
That prompted the Wichita City Council to step in and pass a mask mandate within city limits. That ordinance stayed in effect until Wednesday, but the council decided not to extend it further and returned the decisions on masks to county government.
While the city ordinance was in effect, Minns changed the county orders to make masks and the bar curfew mandatory instead of voluntary.
Even with the county mandate in place, enforcement is more difficult than it was when the city’s was on the books.
The city ordinance could be enforced with a simple citation from police. Under state law the Legislature changed in May, violations of a county health order can only be addressed by filing a civil lawsuit suing the violator.
Minns does retain authority to close businesses that endanger the public health and businesses could lose immunity from COVID-related lawsuits if they don’t obey the orders.
Under Howell’s proposal, food handlers would be the only ones required to wear masks.
Howell’s proposed rewrite also would completely eliminate the curfew on bars and nightclubs, which he believes to be unconstitutional because it singles out certain types of businesses for stricter rules.
Howell proposes to remove all references to establishments that serve alcohol, including Minns’ justification for the extra restrictions.
Minns maintains bars and clubs pose a special threat for COVID spread, because people go there specifically to socialize instead of social distance — and they frequently bar-hop from one drinking establishment to another and can infect people at multiple locations.
Howell said he doesn’t see much difference between a 1 or 2 a.m. closing time in preventing virus spreading.
“We’ve evolved from 11 o’clock to midnight, now to 1 o’clock,” he said. “I would assume they’re busier at 12:30 or 12:45, they’re busier at that time than they would be at 1:15 or 1:30.
“If we’re going to concede to 1 a.m., you might as well just concede back to state law,” which requires bars to close at 2 a.m., he said.
Commissioners didn’t reject Howell’s proposed changes outright, but put them on hold until Minns, who was out of town Wednesday, could review and respond to Howell’s proposal.
Dennis said he expects that to come up again at next week’s commission meeting.
This story was originally published October 21, 2020 at 4:31 PM.
