Loychik pushes to ban mask mandate

Plans bill to prevent school districts from requiring students to wear face coverings

With COVID-19 cases at the highest point in six months, state Rep. Mike Loychik plans shortly to introduce legislation to prohibit schools in Ohio from mandating that students wear face masks.

"With our children returning to the classroom shortly, based on the outcry I've heard from constituents I believe this is a decision that should remain optional and up to the discretion of parents on whether their child needs to wear a mask" and "not a mandate from schools receiving public taxpayer funds," Loychik, R-Bazetta, said in a prepared statement Thursday.

Loychik refused requests to comment further or answer questions about his planned legislation.

In his statement, Loychik said he's heard many concerns from parents who are attending local schools in his district, specifically pointing to the Lakeview and Warren school districts requiring face masks while indoors. Warren isn't in Loychik's district.

Loychik said his proposed bill would not prohibit faculty, staff and visitors from wearing masks or from the school imposing a mandate on them.

Loychik is seeking cosponsors.

Loychik has denied multiple attempts by this newspaper to grant interviews since his November 2020 election, choosing instead to issue prepared written remarks.

State Reps. Michael J. O'Brien, D-Warren, and Michele Lepore-Hagan, D-Youngstown, said they oppose Loychik's proposal.

"It's deplorable," Lepore-Hagan said of the plan. "It's a catapult back to the Dark Ages. It's operating from some Medieval plan. What do (Republicans) have against science? Maybe (Loychik) needs to sit through a seventh-grade science class again. We need to protect our children."

Lepore-Hagan said Republicans speak of favoring local control, but it's not true.

"They're eliminating local control when they do this," said Lepore-Hagan, who blames the refusal of state House Republicans to wear masks for giving her and a couple of other Democrats COVID-19 in December.

O'Brien said: "The school districts should implement their own policies to not only serve their students but also their personnel. The governor has already stressed that. This is a perfect example of local control and if Republicans are in favor of local control, they should be in favor of superintendents and school boards having the authority to make those decisions."

O'Brien said he's only received calls from people who favor local schools making decisions and "applaud the superintendents for being proactive."

State Rep. Al Cutrona, R-Canfield, said of Loychik's proposal: "Generally speaking, that's good legislation. The public and people with kids in K-12 want their children to go in-person and not be required to wear masks."

Cutrona said he's drafted an amendment to a bill he proposed June 15 that would end mask mandates for all public schools. Cutrona's original bill seeks to prohibit mandatory COVID-19 vaccines or require proof of a COVID-19 vaccination to enter businesses or public spaces.

Cutrona said Loychik's proposal, which hasn't been written, sounds a lot like one introduced in the state Senate by Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, not to allow the state board of education, the Ohio Department of Education and local school districts to require anyone to wear face masks in schools.

Brenner sponsored legislation earlier this year to prohibit public schools and colleges from mandating the COVID-19 vaccine.

"We have several bills at the Statehouse moving forward to lift school mask mandates," Cutrona said.

He added: "Generally speaking, local control is an excellent approach. But there's a time for local control and other times where it doesn't make sense. There are situations where absolute local control doesn't make sense."

Mask mandates are one of those situations, he said.

Cutrona also praised Youngstown State University, from where he got his undergraduate degree, for not requiring masks for students for the fall semester. A number of other public universities in the state are mandating them indoors.

"This is a prime example of how the rest of our state institutions should be operating," he said of YSU. "They have weighed the options and responded appropriately with their precautionary guidelines while not mandating heavily burdensome restrictions."

Asked about Loychik's proposal, Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, the Ohio Department of Health's chief medical officer, said it's the agency's recommendation that people eligible for the vaccination get it. The vaccine is available for those at least 12 years old.

If people choose not to get the vaccine or aren't eligible for it, he said, "It is our best recommendation that those students wear a mask to reduce transmission to reduce their risk and the risk to others."