Chester County high school shuts doors for a day after ‘threatening statements’ made over masking

After about 50 students staged a walkout Friday to protest having to wear masks, Conestoga High School in Chester County — in the top-rated Tredyffrin/Easttown district — closed its doors Monday after administrators declared it could not operate in-person safely.

In a statement on Sunday, the Tredyffrin/Easttown School District said it was working with police to address “threatening statements directed toward other students, including racist and homophobic slurs and insults” that broke out on social media after the protest.

“It has been our goal throughout the school year to prioritize in-person instruction and we are disappointed that the topic of masking and resulting incivility of some has compromised our ability to safely operate school tomorrow,” the district said.

The district’s statement didn’t address whether opponents or advocates of masks had been leveling the insults. A student journalist at the school suggested fault lay on both sides.

Conestoga provided virtual instruction on Monday. And on Monday evening, it said police had confirmed there were no active threats against the high school and that in-person instruction would resume Tuesday — on a two-hour delay, giving staff time “to prepare additional supports for students.”

The disruption came amid escalating debate in a number of communities over masking, which is required in many Philadelphia-area districts — Tredyffrin/Easttown among them. But a growing number have moved recently to make masking optional as COVID-19 cases have been falling, and as more experts say mandates may no longer be necessary, despite continued CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations in favor of universal masking in schools.

On Friday, the band of Conestoga students opposed to masking chanted “USA” and “Freedom!” in the school’s atrium before walking out of school, slamming doors and yelling on their way out of the building, according to the high school’s student newspaper, The Spoke. A father who has been a leading critic of masking in the district said Monday that his son helped organize the demonstration.

The Spoke also reported that “pro-mask and pro-science students” had planned a sit-in for Monday.

Some opposed to the walkout booed, but there wasn’t much back-and-forth among students Friday, said Ben Shapiro, a sophomore who is co-copy editor of the newspaper and covered the event. Instead, “I think the student conflicts really happened over social media,” Shapiro said.

Over the weekend, The Spoke turned off comments on its Instagram account “due to an immense amount of comments” containing homophobia, racism, and transphobia, the paper’s editors said in a statement.

“I can’t say for certain if it was only one side doing it to each other,” Shapiro said, adding that more social-media arguments were playing out over students’ personal accounts, and that students who took photos of the protesters were “turning those into memes.”

In an update to the community Monday night, the district said officials would address students in homeroom Tuesday. It said that “harmful speech, including racist or homophobic speech, has no place at Conestoga,” and asked that students “refrain from further organized gatherings” at school.

“The school needs a period of calm and de-escalation right now,” it said in the message.

There will be an increased police presence at the school this week, and students “who may be uncomfortable attending school in person” will be able to access their classes through video, the district said.

It also noted that the school board was “actively reviewing” the issue of masking this month. But “in the meantime,” it added, “students will not be able to attend school in person without wearing a mask.”

Dana Zdancewicz, who has two children at Conestoga, said some of the students who walked out Friday “were plastered on social media ... saying they had privilege,” and were the subject of “toxic and dangerous rants.” Zdancewicz, who said she was “pro-choice when it comes to masking our children,” said one of her sons was in school Friday but didn’t participate in the walkout because he anticipated negative reaction from other students.

“It quickly went down a dark path,” Zdancewicz said. “It’s disheartening.”

Some tied the dissent at the 2,300-student high school — located in one of the region’s most affluent communities — to animosity between parents. Several Tredyffrin/Easttown parents sued the district at the start of the school year, arguing unsuccessfully that its mask mandate violated their religious freedom. And the issue has polarized parents on social media and at school board meetings, the latter marked by loud voices and admonitions from district officials that people needed to remain civil.

Andrew McLellan, who was among the parents who sued the district in the fall, said Monday that his son ralllied support for Friday’s walkout. He said he and his son had filed a police report over threatening social media messages aimed at the students who walked out.

“They have shot down our religious exemptions, our non-consent to the use of medical devices,” McLellan said of Tredyffrin/Easttown; he lives in a nearby Chester County district. “We’re absolutely not going to bend now.” Asked whether his son would wear a mask in order to attend school in person, he said it would be his son’s decision.

Parents like Stacey Mignone, who supports continued masking, said she hadn’t seen explicit threats on social media. “There’s a level of cleverness among the students,” she said, and in making memes in response to Friday’s walkout, “I think they’re making almost a statement back — ‘This is where I stand, what I’m thinking about it.’ ” But she supported the district’s decision to go virtual in light of potentially serious threats.

“You’re seeing a subset of communication — there are texts and Snapchats, and private messaging between each other,” she said. “There could be even more to it.”