School mask wars reach boiling point as districts threaten suspensions

The fight over school mask mandates greatly escalated in several localities this week, most notably in Virginia and New York, where an executive order in the former made masks optional and a judge’s decision in the latter made them at least temporarily mandatory for students.

A New York state appellate judge stayed a lower court ruling Tuesday that had made masks optional for students in public schools. The original ruling had made the Empire State the latest to become a hot spot of controversy over school mask mandates.