Mask Mandate for Caddo Schools Is Changing December 3

Parents have been quite vocal about mask mandates in Caddo schools. Shreveport parents showed up in force again at the Board meeting on Tuesday to urge the board to lift the mask requirement in classrooms.

Now, the Caddo School Board has voted 8-4 to lift the mandate beginning after December 3. Masks will be optional for students and staff effective at the end of that day.

The Board has also given the staff the green light to implement revised quarantine guidelines as long as Caddo Parish continues to show a COVID-19 percent positivity rate of less than 5 percent.

This action also calls for a return to the mask mandates and stricter quarantine rules if we see a two week surge in cases above the 5% positivity mark. The current positivity rate in Caddo Parish is at 1.8%.

Many parents stepped up to urge the board to end this policy.

Robert Bilderback was one of dozens who spoke to the board about this policy. He says "most parishes in the state have done away with this luncacy of mask mandates and we have not seen an increase in Covid cases in children or adults."

School staffers will begin working with all employees to train them on these new protocols.

Dozens of people spoke to the board during Tuesday's meeting calling for a change to the mask policy.

Carla Collins told the Board:

 You guys want to mandate vaccines and we want you to do the job we elected you to do. We are demanding for you to do your jobs. Our schools barely have books, yet you guys have found money to facilitate the administration of the vaccine.  Help make that make sense for me. Your concerns for education come second when that should be your priority.

Brandy Pugh told the board

Politics needs to be out of our schools and she said one board member told parents that a vaccine mandate was going to be put in place for students before the mask mandate was lifted in Caddo Schools. This would require the vaccination of 36,000 students

Bossier schools have already implemented a mask optional policy.