There is just plain confusion here in New York State. A Nassau County judge overturned the mask mandate for schools. Almost immediately, the state Department of Education sent out a notice to all school districts saying that it would appeal the ruling and that there was an automatic stay, meaning that the mask mandate was still in force.
My own school district sent out a letter early this morning saying that the mandate was still in force and that the district would just try to follow the law as best as it understood it.
Representative Elise Stefanik and Rob Astorino, a former Westchester County executive now running for governor, dispute the fact of the stay on the court order.
Kathy Hochul and her Department of Education are LYING to Superintendents causing unnecessary confusion. There is no STAY on this court ruling. Kathy Hochul’s Authoritarian mandate was deemed ILLEGAL by NY Supreme Court. Masks are not mandatory for students as of RIGHT NOW!
— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) January 25, 2022
There is no stay despite what some are saying. Hochul’s mask mandate is illegal.
The science, data & now law is on our side.
Yet @GovKathyHochul’s weird obsession about kids in masks and her refusal to relinquish control must end.
Parents must end this. I will end this.
— Rob Astorino (@RobAstorino) January 25, 2022
Some anti-mask parents are apparently sending their kids to school without masks, or with a print out of the Nassau County ruling.
To be honest, this makes no sense politically for Governor Hochul. The mask mandate was set to expire soon. She could have ended it as soon as Omicron began to fade away, and looked as if she was taking the initiative. If she had shown leadership and gotten ahead of this, it would ease the path for New York State Covid hawks to accept that the situation has changed. Now, with Republicans making hay of it, progressives who are Covid hawks will continue to dig in. And Hochul must either defend her mandate, or will look like she is giving in to conservative opposition.