RICHMOND, Virginia – The House Education Committee voted to advance school mask-optional language in a special meeting Friday; State Senator Siobhan Dunnavant’s (R-Henrico) SB 739 was the only bill on the agenda.
As introduced in the Senate, Dunnavant’s original bill focused on in-person learning, but earlier this week State Senator Chap Peterson (D-Fairfax City) moved to amend the bill to include the masking clause; that vote got broad support from both sides of the aisle. A later vote to pass the amended bill only had two Democrats supporting it, but that was enough to pass out of the Democrat-controlled Senate. On Wednesday, Delegate Amanda Batten (R-York) said that the sudden change surprised Republicans.
The administration is responding quickly; Youngkin has already said he will sign the bill.
“Governor Youngkin Delivers On His Day One Promise To Empower Parents,” an email from the Office of the Governor said Thursday.
For the bill to take effect before July, legislators will have to approve an emergency clause. Dunnavant didn’t know if the administration would add the clause.
“We don’t know what the governor’s going to do, but, you know, the more swiftly we get to a conclusion, the less anxiety there’s going to be,” she told The Virginia Star.
Dunnavant said it was exceptional for a House committee to immediately take up a bill passed by the Senate.
House Education Chair Glenn Davis told The Star that they’re not fast-tracking SB 739. The General Assembly is facing a time crunch due to crossover, when the House and the Senate must send their bills to each other or the bills will be automatically killed. Davis said the Education Committee has about 100 bills coming to the committee for its Monday meeting.
He said, “You’ll notice there a number of committees being called right now, right before crossover, to get a bill or two out the door. We do over 2,000 bills in 60 days, right. Sometimes you have a lot of bills. Sometimes you have one bill.”
“Our kids have been through enough over the last few years with school closures, learning loss, and masking mandates, and they’ve really been put in the middle of very difficult and challenging circumstances, and they suffer. And this bill will do two things: it will make sure that in-person education is available for our children,” Dunnavant told the committee.
She continued, “And then additional paragraph ‘C’ will basically codify the ability for parents to make decisions about masks. And Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I understand this is controversial, but when we really break this down, this issue has become politicized because political entities have made universal mandated decisions for children and family. ”
Dunnavant, an OB/GYN, said evidence shows that masks do not decrease transmission in schools.
Much of the committee meeting’s time was dedicated to members of the public who mostly spoke in opposition to the bill. Delegate Delores McQuinn (D-Richmond) and House Minority Leader Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax) also spoke against the bill.
McQuinn said that decisions about masks in schools could put students at risk of taking COVID-19 infections home to other household members, potentially including grandparents and great-grandparents.
She asked, “How do you address it when you have families that may not be, you know, they might not be the traditional maybe young family, but you’ve got elderly who are also a part of that, that kids can take home viruses to, maybe asymptomatic. How do we address that?”
Dunnavant said, “I think each family needs to make those decisions, and we need to give you the information to do that. The greatest risk for any individual is mitigated by vaccination. Adults are the ones who are at risk. Children’s risk of COVID, you can debate it all you want, but the risk is very small.”
– – –
Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photos by Eric Burk.Â
