Ohio Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley wants Ohio's GOP governor to mandate masks for school children as the coronavirus rages on and is complicated by the rapidly spreading delta variant....By editor Kathy Wray Coleman of Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's leader in Black and alternative digital news

Ohio Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley and Ohio GOP incumbent Governor Mike DeWine

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black and alternative digital newspaper and Black blog.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief

 

DAYTON, Ohio-Democratic gubernatorial candidate Nan Whaley, the mayor of the city of Dayton and currently the only woman Democrat in the 2022 race for Ohio governor, is calling on incumbent Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican who faces opponents from his own party as to next year's governors' race, to issue a statewide order requiring masks for Ohio's school children as the academic school year gets underway.  

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is recommending masks and Whaley says DeWine should piggy back on that recommendation.  

"Masks and vaccines work and it is our responsibility as elected officials to encourage their use," Whaley said in a statement to Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com. "The governor has the power to require masks and keep our kids safe and schools open. It's time for him to use it. If I were governor this wouldn't even be a question, we'd be listening to the experts at the CDC and requiring that public schools require masks for everyone indoors."

The governor has not issued a mask mandate for Ohio's students this academic school year and has signaled that the decision will be left to individual school districts. 

The debate over whether masks should be required of school children in Ohio and elsewhere comes as a 16-year-old student has died of complications from COVID-19, a vivid reminder of the dangers the nation's children face as they return to school amid a still raging pandemic that is complicated by a rapidly spreading delta variant, a more contagious strain of the coronavirus. 

A Lancaster County, South Carolina teen, school district officials have confirmed the tragic death. 

"We are saddened to learn of the passing of a 16-year-old Andrew Jackson High student from Covid complications," Lancaster County School District Superintendent Jonathan Phipps said in a statement last week following the teen's death.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster urged schools to continue in-person learning, though he signed an executive order on May 11 that restricted school districts from mandating masks for students.

McMaster is among a  handful of Republican governors who are standing by their  bans on school districts requiring masks as coronavirus infection, transmission and hospitalization rates increase in their states.

DeWine is not among those GOP governors interfering with school district officials as to any masks mandates and has made a plea to school districts in Ohio to enforce masks in schools for students this school year in the midst of a rise in COVID-19 cases. 

But his more liberal critics on the issue, like Whaley, who decided against seeking reelection as Dayton's mayor to make a bid for governor in 2022, want the governor to go further and to require such masks, something the governor has been reluctant to do.

Meanwhile, DeWine continues to urge Ohioans who have not done so to get vaccinated. 

"Just as our kids are back to school, the new delta variant is sweeping across the state taking a direct hit to those who are unvaccinated," DeWine said during a press update on the pandemic." 

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black and alternative digital newspaper and Black blog.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.