Scores of parents weigh in on Palm Beach County school mask mandate
The Palm Beach Post | by Sonja Isger | April 22, 2021
Palm Beach County parents weighed in on school mask mandates Wednesday evening, with about a dozen marching in front of district headquarters and dozens more filling the voicemail inbox for public comment during the first school board meeting since the state advised leaders to make masks optional.
Inside the meeting, the board did not discuss the mandate, but they did hear some 40 minutes of comments, live and then recorded, and then opted to put online the roughly 45 that remained for the public and the board to listen to at their convenience.
The comments heard during the meeting were almost evenly split between those who wanted the mask mandate to stay and those who want masks to be voluntary.
Palm Beach County parents weighed in on school mask mandates Wednesday evening, with about a dozen marching in front of district headquarters and dozens more filling the voicemail inbox for public comment during the first school board meeting since the state advised leaders to make masks optional.
Inside the meeting, the board did not discuss the mandate, but they did hear some 40 minutes of comments, live and then recorded, and then opted to put online the roughly 45 that remained for the public and the board to listen to at their convenience.
The comments heard during the meeting were almost evenly split between those who wanted the mask mandate to stay and those who want masks to be voluntary.
The supporters of a mask mandate also have online petitions, at least one with more than 1,000 names.
The comments fell under speakers for non-agenda items, though some callers inaccurately believed they were speaking to an agenda item brought forward by board member Debra Robinson.
While the mask debate has divided parents all year, the chatter intensified after Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran issued a letter to superintendents this month urging them to drop mandates in the coming school year, when school districts pivot to almost exclusive brick-and-mortar classes.
The speakers in favor of mask-optional campuses echoed Corcoran’s assertions that masks hinder social interaction, frustrate students who have difficulty understanding their teachers and create an unintended barrier for students and families who would otherwise choose in-person instruction.
Parents, some whose children attend in-person now and others who have kept their children home, described children whose anxiety is only exacerbated by demands they wear masks all day long while being kept at a distance from classmates.
Some questioned the efficacy of the masks, the legitimacy of the danger posed by COVID-19 to children and challenged the district’s legal authority to impose a mandate.
Several made their comments in-person via live-stream video from a designated room outside board chambers. Some wore masks and others didn’t.
The board also heard from parents who say if the mandate is dropped, they fear for the health of their children and families. The majority, who weighed in via recorded message, quoted statistics of rising COVID-19 cases in the county.
One mother described her battle with what seemed a mild case of COVID that in its wake left her with debilitating ailments. She echoed others who had concern not for mortality but lasting illness of children and also frustration over limited virtual options in the coming year.
“I’m watching the county commission meeting right now. Our health metrics are up in a bad way in all of the categories in regards to COVID. Now is not the time to ease restrictions,” Cindy Lacourse Bloom said in a recorded message.
Several parents called to say masks are a necessary measure, but don’t have to be a long-term one. “We just need to hang in there,” said Mary Alexander.
District plans to follow CDC guidelines for masks
School district leaders have said they will continue to follow the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and have no plans to lift the mandate.
Board members have also said it’s too soon to make a call for a back to school date that is four months away. Board member Robinson suggested Superintendent Donald Fennoy check in with the health advisory committee he tapped for advice last summer.
The concern Robinson brought to the meeting Wednesday was Fennoy’s notice to employees assigned to district headquarters ordering anyone working remotely back to their desks by mid-May.
“I was very concerned when Fennoy ordered everyone back,” Robinson said. “In many parts of this building, people are almost on top of each other. They’re in cubbies. …closer than me and Mrs. Andrews (are seated now).”
She said she “appreciated the fact that many of our employees never went home” and that school staff were ordered back to their campuses at the beginning of the year. Robinson also acknowledged that some employees are not performing as well in remote conditions as their bosses would wish, but she said the work should be addressed, not the location.
Some of the district’s workspaces are tightly packed, seating workers closer than leaders would see high school students spaced, Robinson said. Board member Marcia Andrews agreed. “I’m sure the chairs are not 6 feet apart.”
Featured image: Anti-mask demonstrators stand along Forest Hill Blvd. outside the Palm Beach County School District offices during a school board meeting on April 21, 2021 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Greg Lovett, The Palm Beach Post
