Brookline schools bring back mask mandate as COVID cases rise

BROOKLINE - Brookline students and teachers came back to school Monday with a COVID mask mandate back in place

People now have to wear them again in all town-owned buildings, including schools.

"I think it never should have been taken away in the first place," mother Alexis Jones told WBZ-TV.

"(It's just) crazy. It's like mask on, the mask off, the mask on, mask off. I feel like it's going to happen a lot for the school year next year," said Brookline high student Abram Duclos.

The Brookline Department of Public Health said the mandate is due to the recent increase in COVID cases. They hope it will reduce disruptions due to so many students and staff being absent. But some parents disagree.

"I don't think that's the solution. I don't know what the solution is going to be," parent Jean B aptize told WBZ.

The mandate comes as the CDC reports that the number of cases nationally is once again topping 100,000 each day and that 75-percent of the U.S. population lives in a high or substantial risk area for COVID. That includes Brookline.

As of Monday, the town's 14-day positivity rate is 6.87%, compared with its neighbors in Newton (7.71%) and Boston (7.25%). The state rate is 8.11%

Brookline says they'll reassess the mandate every week and lift it once this surge is over.