After hearing about an hour of comments, the school board voted unanimously last week to approve a requirement that all Brown County Schools students and staff mask up regardless of whether they are vaccinated against COVID-19 or not.
Nearly 60 people filled the Brown County High School cafeteria on Aug. 12 for the special school board meeting called to approve changes to the educational service delivery plan which was initially approved in July.
Originally, the plan did not require masks for students and staff; it only recommended them for those who were not vaccinated. But on the first day of school Aug. 4, the school district had its first COVID-19 positive case. Another case was reported the next day, and by Aug. 6 there were four additional cases, Superintendent Emily Tracy said during the meeting. Four more in three schools were reported on Aug. 13.
Tracy and school corporation nurse Holly Gordon met with the Brown County Health Department on Aug. 2 before the start of school to review the plan and talk about universal masking in all schools. They decided not to make changes at that time.
On Aug. 5 — the second day of school — the Centers for Disease Control released new recommendations for quarantining. Now, any person who is less than 3 feet from a person who tests positive with no mask has to quarantine. “If it is more than 3 feet with a mask, we do not have to quarantine individuals,” Tracy said.
Having more students wearing masks would enable them to stay in school if there were a positive case in their classroom.
“The 3-feet rule was a major change in their recommendations for the school that would allow us, with masks, to not quarantine as many kids,” Tracy said.
At the end of July, the CDC also recommended that everyone regardless of vaccination status wear a mask in public indoor spaces if they live in a community with “substantial” or “high” transmission. Most of Indiana was at “high” status last week, including Brown County.
Parents received a message about mandatory masking on Friday night, Aug. 6, to start on Monday, Aug. 9.
That Monday morning, groups of about 15 parents and students protested the rule outside the high school.
The next day, Helmsburg Elementary was shut down for the rest of the week due to having more than 20 percent of its population out with COVID symptoms, a positive COVID test or as a close contact.
The school district will review county-level data from the Indiana State Department of Health to determine when masks can become optional again. The district will also seek guidance from federal, state and local health departments for future recommendations on how to respond to COVID-19.
In addition, district leaders will be reviewing whether or not they can offer virtual learning options for all students — a change from the plan approved last month which did not include a remote learning option.
Another change to the original plan is that asymptomatic and vaccinated people will not have to quarantine if they are identified as a close contact to someone who tested positive and can provide proof of their vaccination status.
After hearing public comments, the school board voted unanimously to approve the changes to the plan, including keeping the mask requirement.
Due to microphone and speaker problems, some parents asked from the audience what the board had voted on. This plan was the only item on the agenda for the meeting.
Some parents walked toward the seated board exclaiming that their children would not wear masks and they would pull their children out of school. Some of that reaction was captured by The Democrat and shared to Facebook.
No masks
Thirteen parents and grandparents spoke in opposition to requiring masks.
“Does the mask help them get back to in-person? Did mask wearing help them not miss out on education that they deserve? No,” parent Lisa Patrick said.
Patrick organized a petition against the mask mandate and the protest at the high school Aug. 9. She said she promised her high school-aged children before the school year started that if masks were going to be required, she would fight the mandate for them.
“After a free summer, no masks, vacations, summer camps, fairs, friends, family reunions and summer athletics, they were actually looking forward to a somewhat normal school year,” Patrick said.
“Three days of normalcy and then we get the dreaded phone call: Mask mandate for all students and staff. No heads up. No hint of this being a possibility. Nothing.”
She is also concerned about their health when wearing a mask. “I as a parent see the stress on their faces as they walk in putting those masks on. Both of my kids suffer from seasonal allergies and wearing a mask they come home stopped up with headaches and sinus issues,” Patrick said.
Lifetime resident Kara Miller said that requiring masks affects relationship-building between students and teachers. She believes this leaves kids at risk since teachers are often the ones who recognize when a child is living in an unsafe living situation, especially with domestic violence increasing throughout the pandemic. “If the purpose of our policy is to keep kids safe, this doesn’t achieve that goal,” she said.
Miller and others also said that putting this policy in place will result in more families leaving the district, taking tuition support dollars with them and away from Brown County Schools. The district has been in a near-constant mode of budget adjustments as state funding decreases due to declining enrollment.
Brown County High School physical education teacher Carlie Salisbury also spoke against the mask mandate. She also has two children who go to Helmsburg Elementary, the school that closed due to COVID cases last week.
She also expressed concern about the culture in the school district. “These hallways are filled with negative culture toward anyone who speaks about mainstream issues, especially masks and COVID, even if they have different research,” she said.
She said that as a parent, she believes the school district is going in a direction that “is not necessarily the place I want my children to go, a place where ideas other than mainstream are not only not considered, but ridiculed.
“The hypocrisy and fear the American people are tolerating right now is asinine,” she said.
“It has now reached a community I love, the one I gave up homeschooling for and one that deserves to have students to stay to take advantage of the world-class opportunities we really do offer. I will do everything in my power to help this school district become something other than ‘just Brown County.’ I believe removing the mask mandate is a step in the right direction.”
Kathleen Schwein lives in Bartholomew County, but brings her children to Van Buren Elementary School and Brown County Middle School. She said it was important to reinstate “parent rights to choose mask options for our children based on scientific facts.”
Angela Huber approached the microphone with her daughter, Emma, who was putting on a full hazmat suit. Angela is an intensive care unit nurse who treats COVID-19 patients. She said it is not possible to protect every entry point on the body for COVID-19 unless you wear what her daughter was wearing.
“I know the risks. I know the benefits. I feel defeat. These children should not have to feel the same defeat that I feel myself. This should be the choice of the parents and the students, whether it be mask or no mask, have immunization or not have immunization,” Huber said.
“Parents should have the right to choose to wear a mask for their students. Students should not have to live in fear or intimidation that they have to wear this mask. Our children should have the privilege to wear or to not wear.”
Parents also spoke about cloth masks having much less effect than an N95 mask fitted to the face. “The masks you have on, I am not saying they will not ever do anything; the correct mask in the correct environment correctly worn will work. But these are not working to protect you and they are not working to protect our kids,” Daniel Smith said, who is a hazmat technician for the state.
“You’re coming between the medical decisions of parents and their students,” he added. “That is not something I would ever recommend.”
Parent Trina Asher didn’t think that most students are able to wear a mask properly and tug on them often. “There is nobody who would love more than me to say that the efficacy of these masks are the answer to all of our prayers, but whether you want to admit that out loud or in this room or not, I think we all know better than to think these kids are properly taking care of these masks where they are actually doing any good,” she said.
Mask support
Another six spoke in support of the district’s policy changes.
Nancy Williamson-McCloud’s daughter’s immune system is compromised. Her daughter spent the last year and a half doing remote learning, but to graduate with an academic honors diploma, she has to attend classes in-person at the high school.
“Masks must remain mandatory in Brown County Schools because the health and safety of our children is more important than their comfort or idea of freedom,” she said.
She said implementing the mask mandate was similar to disciplining children, like by taking away a valuable possession. “They might proclaim that we are taking away their rights or freedom. We know as parents that we are making these decisions based on what we believe will keep them safe and not necessarily comfortable or free,” she said.
Williamson and others in support of the mandate said they know masks will not cure COVID-19, but they help slow the transmission, especially in elementary schools where children are too young to be vaccinated.
“If a freedom is deemed more important than safety, teachers and students should also be able to violate the dress code, the phone policy, the drug policy and any other policies that are related to safety on our school grounds,” she said.
Bess Cole’s son is a preschool student at Helmsburg, the school that closed due to virus activity. “Nothing is going to be universal, nothing is going to be perfect, but we have to do something to keep our children safe. If that’s the least that we can do, we should absolutely continue to have masks,” she said.
Anne Brahaum was an educator in Brown County Schools for almost 20 years. She is now a parent of a high-schooler and fourth-grader. “None of us like wearing masks, none of us, but they are really necessary still at this time and recommended by both the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics,” she said.
“Please do not force families to choose between the health of their children and other loved ones and their educational and mental health,” she continued. Universal masking and other safety protocols, like contact tracing and physical distancing, will give the “best opportunity for consistent, uninterrupted in-person learning as we start the school year,” Brahaum said.
“… As much as we all wish we could be done dealing with COVID, we need to keep these mitigation strategies in place as transmission rates continue to rise.”
Sandy Washburn, the district’s social-emotional learning coach, applauded the board for their work.
“I do believe the CDC knows more than I do. I believe the American Pediatrics Association knows more than I do. I believe the Physician’s Association knows more than I do and they all recommend mask wearing indoors. I support you and I want you to keep the mask mandate in place for our kids, for our staff and our community,” she said.
Parent Lorna Reichmann said that even though masks are not 100 percent effective, it’s the best chance kids have to not spread the virus. “It will not work unless everybody wears one,” she said.
“I don’t see what the problem is other than some people just don’t like the idea of it, it’s uncomfortable, I don’t know. I say please do it until we can have an OK from people who know more about it, because I don’t think anybody here knows as much as the people who are studying it for real.”
