Gov. Kathy Hochul says she is directing the state’s Department of Health to implement universal masking in New York schools.

This is creating problems for parents and students at some school districts who had already decided masks would be optional.

Parents say they don’t know what will happen when schools start, but the new governor says her plan is what most parents and administrators want.

“Priority number one, we get children back to school and protect the environment so they can learn, and everyone is safe,” Hochul says. 

Connetquot's superintendent announced Tuesday evening that the district will be waiting for more guidance from the state’s Department of Health on masks.

Barbara Abboud, a member of Moms for Liberty who has children in the Farmingdale School District, says she promised her children they would never sit in a mask again.

Now, she says she could have to take drastic action if the school follows the governor’s requirement that students wear masks.

“I will be removing them from public education if this happens,” Abboud says.

Some parents, however, are happy to see their schools support the use of the mask mandate.

Students say they have a right to breathe and choose what’s in their bodies. 

Others say they need to stop making it seem that masks are not safe.

“We need to stop spreading that lie,” one student says.

The president of New York State United Teachers, a statewide teachers union, wrote to News 12 saying that they support universal mask wearing as part of a layered mitigation strategy.