North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper vetoes bill with student opt-out for masks

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed legislation Thursday that would allow K-12 students — with their parents’ permission — to opt out of mask-wearing mandates in school that a dwindling number of districts still have in place for COVID-19, questioning its efficacy for public health.

The legislation was approved by the Republican-controlled General Assembly last week as the Democratic governor held a news conference encouraging boards of education to end broad indoor mask requirements amid falling COVID-19 transmission rates and rising vaccination numbers.

Republicans who advanced the bill said the opt-out measure was needed to affirm the rights of parents to make health-related decisions for their children and lamented the obstacles masks have caused for learning and social formation in classrooms.

But Cooper, in his veto message, said a 2021 law that left mask-mandate decisions to local school boards received bipartisan support, and “that is still the right course.”

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