The newly established Douglas County Board of Health voted unanimously Friday to give parents the option to opt out of local mask orders, setting up a potential conflict with the county school district’s standing policy requiring face coverings for younger students and certain staff.

After an hour of public comment that mostly opposed masking requirements, the board swiftly approved the order, which makes face coverings optional for both children and adults throughout Douglas County. It’s the latest turn in a months-long saga in the area, which has pitted Douglas County officials first against the Tri-County Health Department and its own school district. 

The new order allows parents to exempt their children from any mask orders via a “written declaration, signed by the parent or guardian of the child” if the parent or guardian believes the face coverings have a “negative impact on that individual’s physical and/or mental health,” according to the draft included in the board’s Friday agenda. The order also limits why and for how long students exposed or infected by the virus need to be quarantined, and it gives adult staff in the district the ability to opt out, as well.

Douglas County Commissioner Lora Thomas, who also sits on the health board, told The Gazette after the vote that officials have been “inundated with phone calls, emails, communication from parents who are really struggling with their children who are struggling with wearing masks in school.” The vote and health order, she said, were the result of officials listening and responding to those calls.

The frustration over health orders in Douglas County extends back to late 2020, when county leaders negotiated with Tri-County Health to allow for opt outs of its orders. But the disagreement picked up steam in August, after the Tri-County Board of Health approved a mask mandate for younger students in Douglas, Arapahoe and Adams counties. The Douglas County Commission quickly moved to opt out of the order later that month and called on its school district, which had the authority to keep the requirement, to do the same.

But the Douglas County School District announced it would still abide by the order; it became effective Aug. 24. The commission then moved to extricate itself from Tri-County Health, and, shortly after, its newly created health board drafted its own order to weaken any mask mandate within the county.

Douglas County attorney Lance Ingalls told The Gazette after the meeting that the public health order supersedes the masking requirement in the district. The district could keep its policy, he said, but they would still be “expected” to allow people to opt out. 

“It is a county-wide public health order,” he said, “and it is binding to the school district.”

The new health order states any state or federal requirement would supersede the county’s decision. But as for local entities’ requirements, the order states that they “may elect to make such a requirement within their legal discretion subject to the exemption provided in this Order.” 

Thomas said she had not had any contact with the school district in recent weeks, and she has “no idea” how the district would respond to the order. A spokesman for the district told The Gazette that district leaders were meeting Friday afternoon, though it’s unclear to what end. The spokesman did not respond to a subsequent message seeking comment after the vote.

“I don’t know what this is going to look like, but this is an official public health order, and they need to follow public health orders,” Thomas said. School district officials, in their decision to maintain a mask order, have said that they were following health orders, albeit the one from the Tri-County Health Department.

Douglas County officials had previously decried the Tri-County Board of Health — made up of unelected members — and its decision to institute county-wide orders over the objections of or without consulting elected bodies. Linda Fielding, who sat on the Tri-County board and is now a member of the Douglas County equivalent, said she, as an “unelected bureaucrat,” should not be able to overrule school boards. Though Fielding is unelected, several members of the Douglas County health board serve in elected capacities elsewhere in the county.

Asked about the county’s decision to undertake a similar move by overruling the elected school board’s policy, Thomas reiterated that Douglas County officials were listening to their constituents. Members of the public who’ve spoken at the array of meetings held on masking since August have been roundly against any requirement at all; a survey conducted two months ago also showed strong opposition to face-covering requirements.