MUSTANG, Okla. (KFOR) – The great mask requirement debate continued Monday at Mustang Public Schools. The board voted against a mask mandate three votes to two.

“I don’t want a child to start wearing a mask because I vote for them to wear a mask,” said board member Todd Lovelace, who voted against the mandate. “I want them to wear a mask because their parents think that’s the right thing to do.”

The proposal was only for elementary schools to be required to wear the masks. 

One parent we spoke to afterwards, Megan Wilbanks, said her third-grade son is now unsafe because of the vote against a mandate.

“Because he’s eight,” she said. “He hasn’t had a chance to get vaccinated.”

She says many students who aren’t wearing masks are choosing not to because of peer pressure, and that a mask mandate would relieve their fears.

“If a mask mandate was put in place in the way the board was discussing where the parent would have the option to very easily opt their children out if they really had a reason not to be wearing them, it would honestly just cut down on the amount of pressure that the other kids are getting for taking them off or not wearing them,” she explained.

Another parent, Madelyn Taylor, has five kids in the school district. She said she is remaining neutral and would have been fine with the vote going either way.

“I think parents should do the right thing and I think the right thing is different from each of us depending on our children,” she said.

Though the vote failed, Superintendent Charles Bradley said they still expect masks to be worn, although he acknowledged most students aren’t currently wearing them.