Masks will still be required in schools if school boards mandate it. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed a bill Thursday that would have let parents decide if students wear masks in school.
“I have encouraged local boards to lift mask mandates and they are doing it across the state with the advice of health officials who see that COVID metrics are declining and vaccinations are increasing,” Cooper said in a statement. “The bipartisan law the legislature passed and I signed last year allows local boards to make these decisions for their own communities and that is still the right course. Passing laws for political purposes that encourage people to pick and choose which health rules they want to follow is dangerous and could tie the hands of public health officials in the future.”
Nearly all of the state’s school districts already are making masks optional, as Cooper urged them to lift local mandates last week.
