N.J. to lift statewide school mask mandate next month

New Jersey’s statewide school mask mandate will end the second week of March, Gov. Phil Murphy will announce Monday afternoon, marking the end of a controversial pandemic restriction.

Murphy, a Democrat, announced the change will be effective on March 7.

“Early March traditionally means the weather starts to warm up at least a bit…which will give schools a little bit more flexibility to increase ventilation, be more creative with that, and further decrease the risk of COVID spread,” Murphy said at this weekly coronavirus briefing on Monday.

School districts would still be able to implement new mask mandates in response to future outbreaks, state Health Commissioner Judy Persichelli said.

The current mandate requiring masks for all students, teachers, staff, and school visitors has been in place since last fall, when most students returned to in-person classes for the 2021-2022 school year. The mandate has drawn a backlash from many Republicans, as well as some parents. A group of parents sued to overturn it last year, but a federal judge upheld the mandate in December, ruling against their argument that masking violated childrens’ first amendment rights.

Many Republicans and some Democrats are hailing Murphy’s move to end the requirement as good news for the Garden State and its fight against the coronavirus.

New Jersey Senate Republicans called Murphy’s announcement a “first victory” in an initiative launched Thursday called #GiveItBack, a social media campaign and petition designed to put pressure on the Murphy administration to lift coronavirus restrictions and to relinquish emergency powers granted during the pandemic.

“Gov. Murphy is never going to admit that the pressure is getting to him, but it absolutely is,” Senate minority leader Sen. Steve Oroho (R-24) said in a statement Monday. “That’s why he rushed to make this announcement weeks before he actually plans on lifting the school mask mandate.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Gov. Phil Murphy's expected announcement today that he will end the school mask mandate marks the first victory for the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GiveItBack?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GiveItBack</a> movement. We need to keep the pressure on! <a href="https://t.co/rU7sHUdwA8">https://t.co/rU7sHUdwA8</a></p>— Senator Steven Oroho (@stevenoroho) <a href="

">February 7, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Instead of waiting another month, Sen. Kristin Corrado called on Murphy to end the mandate now.

“Parents want their rights to make masking decisions for their kids restored today, not next month,” Corrado said. “There’s no excuse to wait any longer.”

Democratic U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. tweeted, “No step may be more important to normalize life.”

“We have long rightly balanced learning with safety,” he said. “But it is time to restore cherished daily life for our students.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Today we are visiting Kearny High School and <a href="https://twitter.com/GovMurphy?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GovMurphy</a> is announcing the end of the school mask mandate. No step may be more important to normalize life.<br><br>We have long rightly balanced learning with safety. But it is time to restore cherished daily life for our students. <a href="https://t.co/zi8WV4Crbb">https://t.co/zi8WV4Crbb</a></p>— Bill Pascrell, Jr. (@BillPascrell) <a href="

">February 7, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Murphy’s announcement comes after Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf ended the state’s school mask requirements as of January, leaving it up to individual districts to set their own pandemic-related restrictions.

The Governor also announced his emergency powers have been extended for another month.