Lifting of face-mask mandate in Utah school district causes concern

GALLUP

San Juan County School District in Utah is lifting the mask mandate while the Navajo Nation continues to enforce mask wearing.

The lifting of the mask mandate within Blanding Public Schools has caused concern because many Navajo students located in Utah and northern Arizona attend these schools.

This has some people worried about the spread of COVID-19 and how the students will be impacted.

Last Wednesday, this issue was discussed during the regular meeting for the Health, Education and Human Services Committee.

The issue was brought into discussion by San Juan County Commissioner Kenneth Maryboy.

Maryboy spoke about his concerns as a board member and said he has seen students come to school, get sick, then spread the virus to the people in their homes.

Sandi Wilson, Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission investigator, said, “We spoke with Mr. Nelson Yellowman, a board member up there (San Juan School District), and he was also concerned and he pretty much said the area up there is a divided area.”

She said the school district was split into two different regions – the river region and the mountain region.

The river region is located on the southern part of Utah while the mountain region is toward the north.

The river region is where Navajo Nation guidelines are followed and there is a mask mandate. However, there is no mask requirement on the mountain region side.

“Right now, we are still in the process of looking into this matter and we’re going to be looking at some of the policies that pertain to that and why it’s different,” Wilson said.

“Because a lot of the Navajo students bus into the Blanding area,” she said, “and the Blanding school district is considered the mountain region where there’s no mask mandate.”

Superintendent of Schools Harold Begay said the issue of not requiring masks is discriminatory.

“It deals with what we call structural inequities and injustices, these are injustices that have been in place for many years and this needs to be redressed, corrected,” Begay said.

“However way possible we want to look at options to bring better opportunities and much better treatment to our Native American community and constituents in the area,” he said.

He said Navajo people have come to accept this treatment from border towns and surrounding communities but it is not acceptable to him.

“We need to jump on these matters that have been in place for so long and we need changes and so I will make it a point to make this a priority and bring some lawful resolution to these practices,” Begay said.

Chairman Daniel Tso came up with a few ideas to address the lack of a mask mandate, saying a letter could be drafted and sent to the school district requesting a meeting to discuss the issue.

“I just don’t want to just say, ‘OK, Commissioner Maryboy, we agree with you, we understand,’ and then we move on,” Tso said. “I’d rather we do something substantive.”

Navajo Nation Division of Health Executive Director Jill Jim gave a few more recommendations to the committee and said there are a lot of other border towns that are not compliant with Navajo Nation public health orders.

“There are a lot of students that are coming off the reservation to go to school and be bussed into the border towns,” Jim said. “I think that needs to be addressed by parents and I think some teachers are in these school districts, they have over 50 percent Navajo that are student population in those areas.”

She also suggested that to encourage mask mandates and the following of public health guidelines, the Navajo Department of Health can provide resources to the school districts.

“We can certainly work with the San Juan schools or San Juan health department to provide more education and resources and, if need be, we can provide masks and other materials to them if they need it as well,” Jim said.

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