The New Hampshire State Senate just passed (and I mean Just!) HB1093 AN ACT prohibiting mandatory mask policies in schools. “This bill prohibits school boards and other public education agencies from adopting, enforcing, or implementing a policy that requires students or members of the public to wear a facial covering.”
189:75 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. In this section, “facial covering” means any item worn on the face which covers a student’s mouth, nose, or both.
It’s a short and sweet statement that thou shalt not mandate face coverings. This means they are optional – there is no law preventing individuals from adopting them or anyone discussing any harm or benefit. It does, however – because you know how ‘They” get, include some clarifications.
This provision shall not prohibit any public school board or governing person or body of a school from requiring participating students to wear athletic gear intended to protect against concussive or similar sports-related physical damage, or to wear protective equipment while handling chemicals, fire, or other similar hazardous elements for scientific or similar educational purposes. Further, this provision shall not prohibit policies that may require facial coverings as part of a student’s individualized education program pursuant to RSA 186-C or accommodation plan pursuant to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 701 et seq). Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.
Governor Sununu has been known to ignore his Executive Order Spree on the subject of COVID-inspired legislation and selectively play the local control card. (He vetoed HB1131 the 2022 bill preventing school mask mandates). You know, let the locals decide, except when he doesn’t think that’s a good idea. But their local legislators have, in both chambers, through investigation and debate, discovered that mask mandates are not what many claim and may indeed cause harm. Industrial hygienist Stephen Perry came back to New Hampshire again to try and help pass this bill.
He might need to visit the governor personally over a long lunch because this isn’t our first rodeo with protecting kids and education staff from these mandates.
Has Sununu seen more now that he feels comfortable saying yes this time It’s his last term, and he doesn’t have to run on it, so it could go either way. He could also allow it to become law without his signature.
We’d be good with any of that but we’re not holding our breath.
Please politely encourage the governor to sign HB1093.
The post Law Prohibiting Local School Mask Mandates Heads to NH Governor’s Desk (Again!) appeared first on Granite Grok.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Steve MacDonald
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://granitegrok.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.