An appellate court is expected to rule soon on the constitutionality of New York’s mask mandates
WASHINGTON — Even as the COVID-19 omicron variant surges, many school districts around the country — as well as some states like Virginia — are relaxing mask rules for children in classrooms while others are doubling down on mandates requiring face coverings.
In September, one of the first of several lawsuits was filed against the state Department of Health on behalf of a group of children, through their parents as plaintiffs, that argued against a mask mandate for K-12 students; the civil complaint is challenging the constitutionality of the mandates and the efficacy of masks, and contends their usage is hurting children’s intellectual and social development.
Last week, a state Supreme Court justice in a similar case on Long Island struck down the masking directives as unconstitutional. The state is appealing that decision and an appellate court on Monday issued a stay — keeping the administration’s mandates in place until the case is decided.
In the wake of the state Supreme Court justice’s ruling, Gov. Kathy Hochul and officials with the state Department of Health have publicly asserted that the “guidance” issued to schools last September that requires students and teachers to wear masks would still remain in place if the “rule” directed at businesses and other public spaces in November is revoked by a court.
While courts weigh the legality of the mandates, experts have offered differing views on whether the masks are causing long-term damage to children.
Children learn from looking at faces around them, said Kang Lee, a professor of developmental neuroscience at the University of Toronto who studies how children process faces and acquire language. Children learn to recognize their friends, family and teachers — and how to read their emotions.
Masks obscure the face, but their impact on children’s development is complicated, said Lee.
“Masks overall can make social communication more difficult, since we rely so much on using the emotional cues on a person’s face,” Sarah Gaither, an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University, said in an email. “That said, there are other ways that we can teach children to recognize emotions.”
Without cues from the lower half of the face, children learn to glean emotion in subtler ways, like focusing on a person’s eyes. Gaither said that some research indicates children can recognize emotions with relative ease regardless of whether a mask is on.
And visual cues aren’t the only way people indicate emotion — communication also happens through tone of voice, body posture and the context in which emotion is being displayed, said Ashley Ruba, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s psychology department.
Ruba’s research suggests that children can identify emotions even when they and others are wearing masks that obscure the face and prevent exchanges like lip-reading.
“If you’re smiling but you’re speaking in a tone that’s more negative, a child is not necessarily going to assume that you’re feeling happy because you’re smiling,” Ruba said. “They’re going to integrate all the sort of contextual information in order to make an inference about how that person is feeling.”
In a 2020 study, Ruba found that children were as able to identify emotions when a face was masked similar to when someone is wearing sunglasses. Since children often interact with people wearing sunglasses with no demonstrable detriment, she said, this is a promising indicator of the effect masks may have on children long-term.
Lee said children’s development might even be heightened by mask-wearing.
Masks “block some of the crucial channels of information” for children, said Lee, “but on the other hand, wearing a mask also creates a new opportunity.”
Once children realize one information channel is blocked, they’ll find another, Lee said. “Kids are very, very good at this. They adapt to new situations very well.”
Absent certain facial expressions, children may develop “heightened sensitivity” to vocal tone or body language — in the same way that children born blind may develop a heightened sense of hearing, Lee said.
Their teachers and peers may be masked, but children “very quickly” pay attention to hairstyle, body shape, posture and voice, Lee said. They can learn to focus on “the totality of the person” they’re identifying and interacting with.
Masks “block some of the crucial channels of information” for children, said Lee, “but on the other hand, wearing a mask also creates a new opportunity.”
Once children realize one information channel is blocked, they’ll find another, Lee said. “Kids are very, very good at this. They adapt to new situations very well.”
Absent certain facial expressions, children may develop “heightened sensitivity” to vocal tone or body language — in the same way that children born blind may develop a heightened sense of hearing, Lee said.
Their teachers and peers may be masked, but children “very quickly” pay attention to hairstyle, body shape, posture and voice, Lee said. They can learn to focus on “the totality of the person” they’re identifying and interacting with.
But other experts disagree. Cody Meissner, a professor of pediatrics at Tufts Medical Center and Tufts Children’s Hospital, said there’s not enough evidence to suggest that masks actually protect children from the virus, or to conclude that masks do not have detrimental effects on children’s development.
For children, “inability to see a teacher who smiles, who expresses approval or who’s disappointed in an answer that a student gives in the classroom — that’s important. That’s how we all learn. We need to see facial expressions.”
There’s a cost to wearing masks, added Meissner, and “at this stage in the pandemic, it’s pretty clear that there’s no benefit.”
Many of the experts are concerned about other impacts that the pandemic may be having on children’s development.
Any drawback of mask wearing is “totally miniscule” compared to the mental and emotional impacts of staying home and studying virtually, Lee said.
“I’m more worried about the school disruption and social isolation that came from quarantine,” Ruba said.
She’s also worried about children getting the virus as they head back to school.
COVID-19 is “a novel virus that we understand very little about,” Ruba said. Though statistics show children are less likely to suffer severe symptoms, she noted that the long-term effects are still unknown. “Getting COVID is going to be much more harmful for a child’s development than having to wear a mask,” she added.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends “universal indoor masking regardless of vaccination status” at K-12 schools, and urges all eligible schoolteachers, staff and students to get vaccinated. All individuals over the age of 2 should practice “consistent and correct mask use” indoors — and those who are not fully vaccinated should also mask up in outdoor crowds. The CDC says the guidance applies regardless of transmission rates in the area.
The N95 and KN95 respirator masks now suggested for adults have yet to be tested for children’s use, so the CDC recommends that children wear masks with two or more layers that cover the nose and mouth, fitting against the face without gaps. The mask should be snug and comfortable so that the child doesn’t wear it incorrectly or remove it frequently, and children under 2 years shouldn’t wear masks.
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