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Unmasked Crowd At Yuba City High School Basketball Game Leads to School District Investigation

YUBA CITY (CBS13) — It's a game-time decision for the Yuba City Unified School District: whether to change the rules on who can attend indoor sporting events.

The superintendent is launching an investigation after a photo showed hundreds of students in the bleachers of a recent basketball game without masks. And California rules are clear: right now, masks are required Indoors.

The photo of a January 6 boys basketball game between Yuba City High School and River Valley High School, published in the Appeal-Democrat newspaper, shows a possible super-spreader.

Yuba City Unified School District Superintendent Doreen Osumi has launched an investigation into the game that may now lead to a new rule banning student bodies from attending indoor school sporting events.

"Well it was very clear by that picture that a number of our students weren't masked," Osumi said. "We appreciate our community and their involvement in our student events, but have to make sure protocols are being followed."

Melanie Gilday is a parent in the district and does not want Covid-19 restrictions to come back.

"It's worrisome but I do want to get back to normal life," Gilday said. "I think that everyone should be able to go to all of the events. We gotta get through Covid; Omicron is the cold right now and we just gotta tough it out."

The unmasked crowd snapshot comes at a time the omicron variant has led to a steep rise in Covid-19 cases in the school district. The district chose to close Butte Vista Elementary School for two days after a rise in positive tests on campus. The school district also canceled some sporting events in recent weeks.

"So we test our athletes on Mondays and Tuesdays to ensure we don't have any positive students on the team, and so as a result there were some positive students," Osumi said.

According to the Yuba-Sutter Covid-19 dashboard, the number of new positive cases was 189 Tuesday — almost double the number for the same date a year ago.

"The fatigue is real," Osumi said.

The school district is working to keep its doors open. This game-day photo shows the struggle to keep the masking message on point.

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