By Hope Shrum
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS —The Democratic candidate for governor said Tuesday that wearing masks should be mandatory for K-12 schools that reopen for in-person classes this fall as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread.

Dr. Woody Myers and Linda Lawson, who is running for lieutenant governor, held a virtual press conference to say that the safety of students, staff, and their families should be the priority as Indiana’s schools prepare to start a new academic year.

“The virus does not know what age a kid is,” Myers said. “The virus does not know that you’re in the sixth grade where masks are mandatory versus the fifth grade where they are not.”

The Myers-Lawson team called for a statewide mask mandate July 1 and during the press conference, Myers said it’s an essential guideline to enforce in schools — all students and staff need to wear them. He also said class sizes must be reduced to limit the spread of COVID-19.

Even though children are not affected by the virus as much as adults, Myers said they can still carry and pass on the virus to others.

Myers said that funding from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES, Act should to go to schools in need of help, providing them with personal protective equipment, or PPE, such as masks, so they can take all the appropriate steps to keep the learning environment safe.

Both stressed the importance of schools being able to provide virtual learning options, but Myers said the schools need the hardware, software and opportunity to perfect their approach to this type of education.

Lawson, who served as a member on the Hammond School Board for 12 years, said that broadband internet access is a problem that needs to be addressed so students can get their homework done and test in order to progress with their education.

“There’s so many things that we need to be doing that we aren’t doing,” Lawson said. “And as a champion of working families, I think it’s absolutely imperative that we talk about the family issue and talk about what our families are facing.”

While most districts have plans for returning to school full-time but giving parents the option of virtual learning, Myers thanked the schools that have already decided to start the school year completely online.

“This pandemic is not going away, it’s going to be here for a while and it can get worse,” Myers said. “And so, we’re going to lean on virtual education as a major route for schools going forward.”

While Myers said state leadership hasn’t done the best at handling the coronavirus pandemic, he agreed with Gov. Eric Holcomb that each school district should be able to decide how to continue schooling in the fall since every county in the state is affected in different ways by the pandemic.

However, he said the state should have clear guidelines on what specific circumstances would cause a district to switch to virtual learning when looking out for the safety of the students and staff.

Myers said he fears that with the rising number of COVID-19 cases in Indiana, the state is on its way to becoming like California, Florida and Texas, which are facing dangerously high spikes in COVID-19 cases. In those states, the number of cases is soaring and in some cities, the number of beds in ICU units is filling up.

On Tuesday, the Indiana Department of Health reported 734 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to 57,916 confirmed cases in the state. There were 20 more Hoosier deaths, totaling 2,652, not including the 194 symptomatic Hoosiers who died without being tested for the virus.

Myers also called out federal leadership as a deterrent to the safety of everyone involved in the reopening of the nation’s schools. He noted that President Donald Trump has tried to restrain the Centers for Disease Control, which has yet to issue guidance on how schools can safely reopen.

“This is a very difficult topic, and unfortunately, we have not had the national leadership we needed on it,” Myers said. “Our president has attempted to muzzle some of his top health experts, and that’s hardened our ability to really understand the policies that we should be putting in place, and when and how we might need to deviate from any of those policies.”

FOOTNOTE: Hope Shrum is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.