California Gov. Gavin Newsom pulls his children from summer camp over mask policy

By Stella Chan and Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his wife pulled their 10- and 11-year-olds from a summer basketball camp over its policy not to enforce face coverings, a spokesperson in his office said.

“The Newsoms were concerned to see unvaccinated children unmasked indoors at a camp their children began attending yesterday and after seeing this, removed the kids from the camp,” his spokesperson Erin Mellon said in a statement Wednesday.

Newsom, a Democrat, faces a recall election later this year that was motivated in large part by his Covid-19 measures. The camp issue was raised after a group opposed to California’s pandemic preventative measures for K-12 schools had drawn attention to his children’s attendance at the camp.

“This is in clear violation of his own mask mandates. Why can his kid be maskless, but not ours?” the group, Reopen California Schools, posted on Twitter earlier this week.

Mellon said the Newsom family “reviewed communication from the camp and realized that an email was missed saying the camp would not enforce masking guidance.”

“Their kids will no longer be attending this camp,” she added.

Face coverings are required indoors for K-12 schools, childcare and other youth settings, according to guidance from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH).

CNN has requested more information from the CDPH. It is not immediately clear if the camp would be found in violation of state guidelines.

Newsom had to apologize last year for flouting his state-imposed Covid-19 restrictions at the time by dining at a restaurant in close quarters with other households.

In April, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had recommended that everyone at summer camps should wear masks and socially distance and that camp activities should be outdoors as much as possible, given that vaccines are not yet authorized for children of all ages.

Several recent outbreaks of Covid-19 infections have been at summer camps — including in Texas, New York and Illinois — among unvaccinated children and staffers.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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