Randi Weingarten Acknowledges Harms of Classroom Masking

Weingarten said she “completely understand(s)” those who believe masks are “an impediment to learning”

In a Washington Post article published today about a small number of school districts bringing back mask mandates, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten seems to publicly acknowledge for the first time that mask mandates can be problematic in the classroom environment:

Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, said it is clear that masking takes a toll in the classroom — when students with asthma find it difficult to breathe, for example, or when children cannot pick up on cues from teachers because they can’t see their entire faces.

“I completely understand both sides of this — the side that says they’re an impediment to learning and the side that says that when the omicron variant is rising, we need to have it,” Weingarten said. Still, she said, “the wars around masking have been very undermining of teaching and learning.”

Weingarten’s admission that there are costs and harms associated with masking is remarkable, given that just over a year ago she was praising Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding’s thinking about school mitigation measures. Feigl-Ding has strongly argued in favor of school mask mandates.