A group of parents held a pro-mask rally Friday morning, just four days after the school board voted to make face masks optional.

The district has no plans to change its mask policy, which allows students and their parents decide whether students wear a mask when classes resume next week.

Dr. Jerry Thacker, Superintendent of Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation, released the following statement:

We respect the rights of all our families, parents and guardians to speak their opinions and make their wishes known. The Board of School Trustees and I take our responsibility of ensuring the well-being of all our students very seriously. The state and county health officials have left the COVID mitigation measures up to the decision of the local school boards. The P-H-M School Board voted on August 9th that masks should be left up to families to decide. Other COVID safety measures that were in place last school year to help mitigate the potential spread of the virus will be in place next Wednesday, August 18th for the start of the 2021-22 school year. These methods were very effective last year and we believe that they will continue to be so.