School Board Votes for the Virus
in spite of personal awareness of the risks against children, staff and families
Tuesday morning I woke up replaying in my mind the agonized confusion of three of our five School Board members at their live-streamed meeting the night before. They described, to the point of tears, having to admit the awful dangers of the Delta variant that threaten all the children they were elected to care about and keep safe. I also remembered the emotional intimidation on display by most of the public in favor of optional masks. There were also a few impassioned pleas for a solid, protective mask mandate. And then there was the odd appearance of our US House Representative.
All day Sunday, I had felt compelled to write about the plight of women and children under siege by their own men in Afghanistan.
Then comes our School Board’s vote for optional masks on Monday night. Our children right here in Transylvania County have just been put at risk for the Delta variant, along with school staff and families. Three to two, the elected Board members cast their votes, and I believe the virus won.
During the Board meeting, the majority of the public comment was about American freedom of choice, the slippery slope into communism, the child abuse of mask wearing, the failure of masks to keep out germs, the fact that masks get dirty in the bottom of a truck, the offense of standing in the way of parents’ rights, the discomfort and inhibition of wearing a mask. Someone warned the Board, “now I know your names”.
From a few people at the podium, we also heard about the limits of personal freedom in order to protect others’ freedoms, Christian love for “your neighbor”, the risks of immune compromised children being exposed to the virus, current community data about the Delta variant, the way public health works, and trying to end the pandemic and get back to normal by doing everything possible to stop the spread.
So, back to Madison Cawthorn. What was a US Congressman doing at a small school board meeting in a county he doesn’t live in? I wasn’t surprised, because he also showed up at Buncombe and Macon County (virtual) School Board meetings over the same mask-wearing issue. Buncombe rejected his plea to “do the right thing”, and their schools now mandate masks inside and on buses, with exemptions for people with proof of vaccination. The Macon County School Board voted to make masks mandatory.
At our own School Board meeting, Madison Cawthorn said he wasn’t there “as a parent, but as the federal representative of every single parent in Transylvania County.” Technically, I guess that’s right.
He told the Board,
You all have a duty to protect the students. … The people of Transylvania County did not elect you to do what is easy. …Unelected bureaucrats … have put you in a very hard spot, to where they have said, oh if we just check one person who has COVID-19 tests positive, we have to make that entire class go into quarantine. … It’s a difficult spot to be in, but I’m telling you, disobey that rule. …When people are trying to force their will upon you, unelected bureaucrats in Raleigh … it is your duty to listen to parents in this room.
When Cawthorn said, “parents in this room,” he turned and waved his hand to the audience’s cheers and applause.
He then said that others are free to wear masks as they wish, but “do not look at me the wrong way when I do not wear a mask.”
Cawthorn went on, facing the Board.
There is an entire generation who are watching your actions today, to see if you will submit to the rule of the mob. … But it’s not really mob rule that dictates whether or not you wear a mask … it’s a small minority, it’s just very loud. … It is your duty to stand in the gap when people are trying to put tyrannical mandates that take the right of the parent away to be able to choose what is right for their children.
There is more.
My friends, I am coming here to encourage you to stand in the gap, to take the arrows on behalf of the parents of Transylvania County because this is what is right. It is insane to say that we are going to mask our children in these critical developmental years for their entire childhood as they come up. It will make our country a weaker place and it will make the next generation more susceptible to be able to accept tyranny and it is wrong. I encourage you, please do what is right.
You don’t have to go all the way to the Middle East to find willful failure of leadership on behalf of the people.
As an elected board member in Henderson County, I have been appalled by the behavior of those who wish to vote for optional masks. None of us want to wear a mask forever. We consistently get sent misinformation about the dangers of mask wearing from the least credible sources. No, the “Patriots for DeSantis” group is not a credible medical source and we’re just not buying what they are selling, as a majority. The safety of our children must come first or I have no idea why we are even there. Let’s hope the coming months bring such a drop off in cases that the CDC can recommend that we go mask optional, but until then, I will uphold my duty to keep our children and teachers safe, even if it is unpopular and has made working and living in this town very uncomfortable, to say the least. I have been followed, photographed, someone always trying to get a picture of me without a mask so they can label me a hypocrite. This included a photo of me eating pizza out with my daughter who was home from college. If you’re shaking your head, you get it.
More disturbing even than Cawthorn was the very young children holding up No Masks signs. The virus is a formidable foe, but, to elementary school children, bullying by peers for wearing/not wearing masks is an issue as well. I didn't watch the entire meeting but wonder if this issue was considered as well.