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Early August message from Diocese of Beaumont Bishop
Effective Thursday, Aug. 26, schools under the auspices of the Diocese of Beaumont will be subject to mask requirements, the Diocese announced Wednesday.
“Having seen the updated guidelines from the CDC, in consultation with our local health departments, and in light of the decisions of our local school districts, the administration of the Diocese of Beaumont and our five schools feel it prudent in this moment of global pandemic to update our COVID protocols for the safety and protection of our students and for their continuity of education,” an announcement from the Diocese explained. As of Aug. 26, “we will implement an additional safety measure from the previous school year, which is the requirement of all students, faculty, staff and visitors to wear face coverings when indoors on our school campuses and when attending religious education classes at our parishes. Masks will also be required for indoor sports as well as indoor extracurricular activities. Masks will be optional for outdoor activities and events.
“Being properly masked drastically reduces the chance that an individual would be required to quarantine when there is a close contact situation at a school or in a parish religious education class. We recognize that families have been burdened with the stress of having to quarantine, sometimes multiple times within the same family. We believe that this additional layer of safety will mitigate this issue.”
The correspondence concludes that administration will continue to regularly monitor and evaluate campus protocols “in consultation with medical providers and in consideration of CDC and local health department guidelines.”