N.J. Governor: Anyone Telling You that We Can Safely Reopen Our Schools Without Mask Mandates Is ‘Lying’

EXCERPT:

MURPHY: “Anyone telling you that we can safely reopen our schools without requiring everyone inside to wear is quite simply lying to you. Because we can’t. I want as much, believe me, as much as anybody else in our state to see our kids smiles as they start their school years, but I do not want to see it at the same time any of them getting sick needlessly or school have to shut down again and go remote because of an outbreak, and especially of a dangerous variant that is putting kids in its crosshairs. Absent of this requirement, that’s exactly where we'll end up. And that’s not speculation. If you look to what's already happening elsewhere across the country in schools that have already opened and are mostly in the southern part of the country without a mask requirement, it is not a matter of if we would have a school closing outbreak, but when. For this moment, getting our kids safely back in the classroom requires them and their educators and staff to begin the upcoming school year wearing their masks.”