Dive Brief:

• In districts where masks will be a choice for students this fall rather than a mandate, administrators are concerned the face coverings could become a point of contention that leads to bullying, District Administration reports.
• To prevent issues, many school leaders are planning to remind students to be kind and respectful of their peers' decisions. For example, principals in Florida's Collier County Public Schools will share messages about masking in morning announcements, while North Carolina's Onslow County Schools added a policy declaring harassment over mask wearing will be considered bullying and won’t be tolerated.
• Some states, such as New Jersey, plan to require masking at all schools, eliminating the issue all together. In other states, like Florida and Texas, some district administrators are defying statewide bans on mask requirements and may require masks despite potential threats to state funding.

Dive Insight:

Masks have become a polarizing political issue, and it’s possible these disagreements will spill over into schoolyards. For those living in states where masks at school are optional, students may feel peer pressure to either wear or not wear masks.

Appearances are one of the most common reasons students report being bullied over. As a result, students could be bullied for either wearing or not wearing a mask, depending on the region, because they may be making a choice that makes them look different.

School leaders can extend their efforts to promote a culture of respect, tolerance and acceptance to include the issue of masking. Having students consider the feelings and concerns of their peers in choosing to wear a mask is also a real-world instance of practicing social-emotional skills in empathy and compassion.

Bullying is a significant problem, with one in five student reporting it each year. Research from the Annenberg Institute at Brown University suggests in-person interaction drives both face-to-face and cyberbullying. Prior to the pandemic, the rate of cyberbulling rose from 11.5% to 15.3% between 2015 and 2017, according to the U.S. Department of Education. A report published in April 2020 also found abusive and toxic online content and hate speech between young people went up 70% in the early months of remote learning.

In Florida, the state board of education has claimed mask mandates are "COVID-19 harassment" and will allow parents to request private school vouchers to take their children out of public schools. Gov. Ron DeSantis previously issued an executive order banning mask mandates in schools, but some districts are disobeying the order and requiring masks anyway. Cases of COVID-19 are currently surging in Florida to the highest levels seen to date.