When students return to Juneau’s Public Schools on Monday, staff and students will wear masks inside but have the option to drop them when outside on school grounds.<\/p>\n
In a packed Zoom meeting Tuesday night, parents and community members on both sides of the masking issue made passionate pleas before school board members voted unanimously in favor of the mask mandate to start the school year.<\/p>\n
“Our number one priority is that we are open five days a week, all day. That’s our priority. We want to make sure that everything we do lines up with that goal. It’s hard work,” said Bridget Weiss, superintendent. “We have a collective responsibility to sustain in-person learning.”<\/p>\n
School board candidate Thomas Buzzard was one of the community members who urged school officials to drop the requirement and let parents decide what to do.<\/p>\n
“Sadly, some will get sick and die but there is no other way to beat this. Be reasonable and unmask the kids and let it move through,” he said, adding that he supports some mitigation measures, such as handwashing. “Being on the school board does not include tyranny.”<\/p>\n
Cross country teams gaining speed and numbers<\/a><\/ins><\/p>\n Public weighs in<\/strong><\/p>\n Among the 15 callers, nine opposed the mask policy and six supported it.<\/p>\n Before opening the virtual floor to public comment, Elizabeth Siddon, school board president, said that board members had been researching the issue and reading email messages from the community, totaling 232 messages about the policy.<\/p>\n Siddon added that the American Academy of Pediatrics and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention both recommend that children wear masks at school.<\/p>\n Paul DeSlover urged the school board to maintain the mask policy.<\/p>\n “Kids are resilient,” he said. “A lot of the issues are not with the children but are with the parents.”<\/p>\n Stacy Diouf, principal at SayèikGastineau Community School, said that masks worked well when in-person school resumed in the spring of 2021.<\/p>\n “We could smile and enjoy each other’s company while staying safe,” she said.<\/p>\n Those opposed cited mental health concerns, with many saying there is insufficient evidence that masks are effective. Some suggested that sickness is part of life and should be allowed to play out naturally as the social and educational costs of masks are too high.<\/p>\n Sam Smith, a local veterinarian with Tongass Veterinary Services<\/a>, said that masks don’t work.<\/p>\n “I am a doctor and as all doctors know, the masks don’t work. It’s analogous to throwing sand through a chain-link fence,” he said.<\/p>\n Smith said that parents promoting masks had “irrational fears” and that kids are unlikely to get COVID and that those who do are unlikely to die from it. “Our rights don’t die when these irrational fears begin. The mask is nothing more than a PC virtue signaler,” he said.<\/p>\n