Two issues are at play here. First, is the mask mandate itself for three-year-olds. Second, is the inconsistent enforcement of it. Once again, another family was forced to step off a Southwest Airlines flight after their three-year-old son could not keep his mask on…but they flew again the next day and he wasn’t wearing a mask.
Issue #1: Can Disability Exception Cover Children Who Cannot Wear Masks On Airplanes?
One way to look at this matter is Southwest Airlines is merely following the rules. The federal mask mandate requires children two years old and older to wear a mask on commercial flights. The rule is clear enough and airlines are not given much discretion in enforcing it, though I would argue that there is more discretion available than airline assume (keep reading).
The mask mandate (.pdf) allows for the following exception:
A person with a disability who cannot wear a mask, or cannot safely wear a mask, because of the disability as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act (42 U.S.C. 12101 et seq)
The ADA defines a disability as a “physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities of such individual.”
The act further details that major life activities include, but are not limited to:
- caring for oneself
- performing manual tasks
- seeing
- hearing
- eating
- sleeping
- walking
- standing
- lifting
- bending
- speaking
- breathing
- learning
- reading
- concentrating
- thinking
- communicating
- working
So let me ask you this: can a three-year-old care for oneself? Can a three-year-old perform many manual taks? Lift? Speak? Concentrate? Work?
A disability under the ADA cannot be “transitory” in nature, but a “transitory impairment is an impairment with an actual or expected duration of six months or less.” I would assert that a child does not become self-sufficient by age 3.5…or even for the next six years.
Therefore, I think airline have some leeway in seeing a child unable to keep his mask on as a disability while maintaining fidelity to the ADA.
My four-year-old son can keep his mask on, but I’d try that if he couldn’t.
I cannot fault Southwest Airlines for refusing to flout federal rules, but I also think Southwest could show empathy by classifying the inability of a young child to wear a mask as a disability. Throwing families off is simply ridiculous.
Issue #2: Selective Enforcement Of Mask Policy On Southwest Airlines
Interestingly, I’ve seen a lot more children lately in the 2-5 range flying WITHOUT masks than with masks…and in most cases, flight attendants say nothing.
I do applaud that but also note that just because a flight attendant fails to enforce a rule on one occasion does not mean you can ignore the rule on future occasions.
Here, the family lives in San Jose, California and flew to Las Vegas without issue on Southwest even though their son could not keep his mask on.
Then, the family was boarded on the return flight even though their son was not wearing a mask, only to be threatened “as criminals” (according to the family) by flight attendants when their son could not keep his mask on once onboard.
Fearing the police would be called, the family voluntarily left the flight. Southwest rebooked them to travel the next day and they did without issue…and their son once again did not wear his mask.
By this point, having flown frequently over the last year, I really do not think airlines care. Instead, airlines will defer to flight attendants who are uncomfortable when passengers do not wear mask, but if the flight attendants say nothing, the airline really does not care.
CONCLUSION
Some children are easily able to wear masks while others are not. For those who are not, I think it is time to start considering that inability to keep the mask on a disability and letting it slide pursuant to that exception in the mask rule.
In any case, I hope the federal mask mandate will expire in September. I believe once that happens we will see far fewer cases of poor behavior onboard and no more cases of families being thrown off due to absurd masking rules for very young children.
RE: I hope the federal mask mandate will expire in September.
Delta variant’s emergence
CDC’s expected guidance for masks in public spaces, due later today.
If people don’t want to get vaccinated, they had their chance. I agree with Macron…
He never said that. It was a hoax repeated by many. And no, it’s not “the spirit that counts,” just to head off any objections to the fact that it is falsely attributed.
I didn’t quote that faux news tweet. I quoted what he said. Thank you.
3 year olds cannot take care of themselves. They have people called parents or guardians who should know better and keep them masked. Being a toddler itself should not be called a disability.
There are plenty of regulations we routinely flout without getting caught because of uneven enforcement…eg speed limits, jaywalking etc. that’s shouldn’t be a reason to toss the whole rule out.
It’s a senseless rule not based upon science, but based upon fear.
There is no science behind putting masks on children, and we don’t do it in less-infected (and by infected I mean by dumb weak snowflakes) areas of the world.
We believe in actual science, not the “science” coming from some mobster from Brooklyn that runs Pfizer’s sales division called the CDC.
The family should not to travel unless really necessary . The child is vulnerable to Covid-19.
We all are. Life goes on. Enough.
Do you know how many children have died from COVID-19 in the US over the course of the whole pandemic? 337. Of the estimated 115+ million cases in the US (as of April), only 337 deaths of children. More children died in the previous flu season. But think of the children! Be afraid! Far more die in car accidents. No one should drive! It’s not safe!
STFD, anti-science, anti-vaxxer who is a scourge of misinformation on this blog…you’re part of the problem, hope Delta has its way with you
Ah, UA-TDS, wishing death upon others as usual. Typical leftist hysteria, calling facts he doesn’t like “misinformation.” Do you “follow the science” or not? I am using data from founts of misinformation such as the CDC and the New England Journal of Medicine. Can’t trust those MAGAt institutions, right? Also, why is it that the dumbest among us love to use acronyms like “SMH” and “STFD?”
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/burden.html
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1127698/influenza-us-deaths-by-age-group/
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmsr1804754
Get ready for the 200k/week Delta wave, thanks to anti-vaxxing, anti-science chumps like you. Funny that you proclaim to be a person of science, reason, logic, then toss out the “Great Reset”.
Have fun outrunning Delta, anti-vaxxer!
I have never been infected with SARS-CoV-2, so how could I have spread it? Of course you can’t refute anything I say. You only have insults and wish death upon me. Progressives are so filled with empathy. Obviously I oppose authoritarianism, but who said anything about the Great Reset? You’re losing it, box jumper. Is it long COVID scrambling your already feeble mind? Why don’t you take a shot at refuting the data on COVID-19 deaths among children instead of hoping that I die from COVID-19?
Being 3 years old is not a disability. Unless a child has an actual disability, they either wear a mask or stay home. While at this point I think they should 100% eliminate the mask mandate, I do think while it’s in place, people need to follow it.
I also agree that just because the mask policy was not enforced on flight #1 doesn’t mean it can be flouted on flight #2 with now consequence. If I do 60mph in a 40 mph zone on the way to work but get pulled over going home at the same speed….not getting pulled over on earlier is not a defense. Same logic goes to flying.
If your kid can’t keep a mask on then don’t fly. Having kids does not come with some special dispensation that the rules don’t apply. I know every parent can rationalize why their trip is important or necessary, but just as everyone gets a trophy nowadays everyone’s reasons are the most important ones.
Why not force a one-year-old to wear a mask?
That reply makes sense in a debate about the mask mandate and merits. This is an article about a family not following the rules.
I agree the rule is stupid….especially now that we have more data. If it was up to me I would say eliminate it immediately. But it’s the rule. We don’t get to pick and choose what rules we want to follow.
I don’t disagree, but I think we can be more creative in finding loopholes to it through a broad reading of the exceptions while still slowing the unvaccinated from spreading it amongst themselves.
Make it mandatory for all air customers to show proof of vaccination. We coddled all these crazies and what did we get? No shots or group effort to help the problem. So now we all get to wear masks again. Blame all goes on the selfish unvaccinated.
Regardless of the effectiveness of this rule…whenever I hear these stories I am inclined to think there is some intersection between an overly zealous flight attendant and an a**hole parent. We only hear their side where they were victimized but I can’t help but think they participated in escalating the situation.
I recently flew on United with my almost 4 year old daughter whose mask kept slipping below her nose. It was the only clean one we had left and it was kind of loose. Before boarding finished we had an FA chide me multiple times about it (we were sitting at the bulkhead so she was parked there) but I was kind about it and apologetic and did my best to keep it up. Later we took a used mask and tied it through the loops behind her head to keep the other one tight. If I had chosen to be a jerk, I would have been in the same position as this guy.
Its so funny so many people talk about rules and laws by saying “rule is a rule”,” law is a law” except when one decides to enforce it or not. This year alone over a million people crossed the borders without papers and we still talk about rules and laws?
By the way, I’m one of those who legally came to this country, did everything legally to gain citizenship.
“This year alone over a million people crossed the borders without papers and we still talk about rules and laws?”
And the majority of them were arrested.
Also, not sure why you keep bringing up this issue when the topic is about a kid thrown off a plane for not wearing a mask…
@Aaron,
It’s unprecedented for agents to release migrants without an official notice to appear in court.
“Also, not sure why you keep bringing up this issue when the topic is about a kid thrown off a plane for not wearing a mask…”
I keep bringing up the issue because people like you talk of rules are rules and laws are laws. You want to apply the rules to 2 year old’s or their family to control a 2 year old but not to those who break our own laws and you wonder why I keep brining this point.
Last time I checked, none of the elected representatives have any rights to pick and choose which laws to enforce and which ones not to enforce. Their oath is to uphold the constitution and the laws of the land.
The mask ordinance is not even a law.
That’s a long winded justification to keep expressing you xenophobic opinions. Lets at least try to stay on topic for a change. Unless you feel the need to keep troll, troll, trolling you boat…
Maybe you should learn the meaning of “ xenophobic”. I’m brown and immigrated to this country lawfully in my twenties. I have no problem with skin color or religion or region one comes from. My problem is whether one follows the law of the land. You seem to be a racist @Aaron who do not want brown to raise his opinion, see how this game can be played.
You can be brown skinned and still be xenophobic. You are a textbook case of that.
I suppose you would rather sell your children to a child sex predator as long as he were black or crossed the border illegally. Never mind the toddlers BEING THROWN OFF A 14 FT WALL in the name of diversity by coyotes. Or the Cubans trying to enter legally by boat – as they’ve done for 60 years – but no thats not the way. Because they’re actually escaping communism while the Mexican cartels just want more people to intoxicate. And we wonder why there’s an opoid crisis! What ever happened to being a beacon of freedom, America, protector of democracy and liberty.
Demoncrats use words without actually knowing what they mean. And that is one of the stupidest things there are. Take a look, progressive, at the actual meaning of the word xenophobia. Notice it doesn’t mean “dislike of drug cartels, sex traffickers, criminals, or chinese viruses:
xen·o·pho·bi·a
/ˌzenəˈfōbēə,ˌzēnəˈfōbēə/
Learn to pronounce
noun
dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries.
“the resurgence of racism and xenophobia”
So quit harrassing a LEGAL american and do something worth time. Like reading the Bible, perhaps.
And no, I’m not racist. There are black people and immigrants (like this American) who should actually be here.
So much nonsense in one post. Points though for bringing in unrelated topics and issues to try and distract form your racist xenophobic nonsense.
Gotta love sock puppet theater.
USA mandates really do beggar belief. Here in Australia, only people 12 years old and over have to wear a mask when flying.
Well as much as I love Australia you guys closed yourselves off and now only 13% of you are fully vaccinated. So while the rest of the world is working on getting open your bff New Zealand tells you to bugger off because of case spikes. We might have quite a few anti vax morons but 13% is pitiful.
And let’s not forget like 98% of your koalas have Chlamydia so not much faith you guys figure it out
Your line, if the “flight attendants say nothing, the airline really does not care” makes no sense. The airline does have policies, and the policies reflect what it cares about. But the airline isn’t a living being – it needs its employees to implement its policies.
Perhaps you are saying that since SWA hasn’t fired the FAs who aren’t enforcing the mask mandate, it doesn’t care. Is that what you are saying?
Many companies have ethics policies. Just because an employee violates the ethics policy doesn’t mean that the company doesn’t care about ethics.
I view the actions in this article akin to the audit lottery or speeding. You may do it a couple times and not get caught but that doesn’t make the law void. But just because you didn’t get caught 9 times isn’t a defense when you are caught the 10th time. Any real lawyer would know that.
You totally miss the point and misread the story. First, an unethical and irrational rule should not be enforced in such a way that does not exploit exceptions to undermine it. Second, I’m indeed saying that airlines don’t care about masks. Rather, they care about shutting up FA unions or in the case of Delta, keeping FAs from unionizing. Finally, your legal generalizations are laughably naive, were addressed by me in the story, and fail to account for the context of this situation.
Who are you to determine what is unethical and irrational? That is your opinion, and others disagree.
Of course that it my opinion and others are free to disagree.
In your reply, you say these mandates are because of the FA unions. But your article doesn’t mention unions at all. How do they keep FAs from unionizing?
And my legal generalizations are naive? Why? And you don’t address them in your story.
Can airlines just declare something a disability? I know you “asserted” this in the article, but its your opinion, right?
First, don’t make assumptions about me. Your little snipes are vitriolic and unnecessary.
Second, of course this is my opinion. It’s my blog…
Third, this wasn’t an article on the pressure FA unions have exerted on onboard masking. It was a rabbit hole I deliberately chose not to go down here.
Fourth, as you might know, the law often moves by redefining terms and testing out those redefinitions first in practice and eventually in court, though sometimes in the opposite order. Have you ever read Bostock?
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/17-1618_hfci.pdf
I’ve witnessed Southwest passengers boarding their flights wearing all sorts of things called “masks” & not a word was ever said by the boarding agents or flight attendants . Had the child been able to tolerate a Kleenex on its face, I imagine that would have passed muster.
I think Southwest could enforce the rule in a general sense, while still allowing and encouraging their FAs to have a little compassion.
Why don’t the few people scared of WuFlu stay home and let the rest of us live like normal?