The school board of Waukee, Iowa, planned to mandate masks, but then a campaign started in the community against the mandate. Faced with threats to “make the district pay” by withdrawing students, the board voted down the mask mandate. The only dissenting vote was a physician. The anti-maskers prefer to expose their children to a highly contagious and deadly disease.

Categories Health, Iowa, Safety

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GregB says:

September 22, 2021 at 9:24 am

One has to have some professional begrudging respect that “An anonymous Facebook group claiming to be run by local parents”–which could be a couple of people in Florida for all they know–could link vouchers with anti-vaccine idiocy to create a false narrative in the first place. Kudos. And seeing a democratically elected school board cower so easily reflects the experiences I have observed with my local one. This summer our local paper ran a story on schools in the county and all but the largest, urban district retreated on requiring masks. While not as theatrical as the Iowa situation above, the result is the same.

A big problem here is that parents and citizens who know better, who get vaccinated, who make up the vast majority of Americans are letting these idiots have an impact. People need to speak up and give others motivation to speak up. Their silence is equivalent to those who live under totalitarianism and remain silent.

Wrote this in response to my local situation, which was published. Hope more of you do the same. Time to get pissed off:

Today’s headline about Summit county hospitals and pulblic health officials recommending indoor masking—regardless of vaccine status—combined with the spread of the Delta variant, primarily among the unvaccinated, makes the past weekend’s story about all but one of the Summit country school districts not requiring masking in schools when they reopen even more depressing.

The Ohio Education Association rightly states that “the science is clear” about following CDC guidelines. Yet every superintendent in Summit county quoted in the story waffles with the courage of bureaucratic indecision about the health of their students and teachers; they act as if they have more medical education than the experts.

Band aid statements about how “safety of our students and staff remains the top priority” are not a substitute for decisive policies and action.

Those who are eligible to be vaccinated and choose not to be are subjecting this region, state, and nation to unnecessary risk. They endanger the economy they profess to cherish, they extend the life of vaccine variants, and have put countless of people at risk for delayed diagnoses and treatments of cancers, respiratory and other diseases.

It is distressing that Summit school administrators fear political retribution based on willing ignorance and partisanship more than doing their duties to ensure safe and nurturing schools in their districts.

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- ciedie aech says:
  
  September 22, 2021 at 1:08 pm
  
  I begin to wonder if governors/administrators/superintendents or possibly school boards who get rid of mask mandates will one day face “lethal incompetence” lawsuits: when people die, it is hard to forgive those who likely caused the death.
  
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Ponderosa says:

September 22, 2021 at 9:43 am

If masks were harmful, why have medical personnel been wearing them for decades? I do not understand the rationale for mask refusal.

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Ponderosa says:

September 22, 2021 at 9:45 am

What should be done with students who constantly break he mask rule? Restorative justice?

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- dianeravitch says:
  
  September 22, 2021 at 10:46 am
  
  Students who refuse to wear masks should be excluded from school so they don’t infect others.
  
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- dianeravitch says:
  
  September 22, 2021 at 10:49 am
  
  I don’t understand why some parents insist on allowing their children to be exposed to a deadly virus.
  
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  - FLERP! says:
    
    September 22, 2021 at 11:14 am
    
    It’s not very deadly to children.
    
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  - dianeravitch says:
    
    September 22, 2021 at 1:10 pm
    
    But children can spread the virus to their parents and grandparents, who may die.
    
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  - FLERP! says:
    
    September 22, 2021 at 1:16 pm
    
    But that doesn’t mean we should use the specter of child death to scare people.
    
    Parents and grandparents should get vaccinated. If they want to lower their risk even more, they can take additional precautions. They can social distance, wear double- and triple-masks and eye goggles, avoid going outside, avoid gatherings, have family members and other close contacts take frequent rapid tests, etc.
    
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  - FLERP! says:
    
    September 22, 2021 at 11:19 am
    
    I don’t understand why any parent who thought Covid was a deadly threat to their children that went far beyond the normal potentially deadly risks that children face each day would feel fine sending their children to school simply because they have a surgical mask on.
    
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  - dianeravitch says:
    
    September 22, 2021 at 1:04 pm
    
    COVID is more dangerous than the normal risks that children face daily. It’s contagious. Children can not only catch the disease, they can transmit it to vulnerable adults in their home. The adults might die. That’s way worse than falling off your bike and scraping your knee.
    
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  - FLERP! says:
    
    September 22, 2021 at 1:13 pm
    
    Not true. Covid is far down the list of the most common causes of death for children. Accidents are by far the most common cause of death.
    
    Vulnerable adults should get vaccinated and take additional measures to protect themselves if necessary.
    
    That being said, if I actually believed my children faced a high risk of death or long-term illness if they caught Covid, I definitely would not feel secure sending them to school in a flimsy mask.
    
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  - Mamie Krupczak Allegretti says:
    
    September 22, 2021 at 4:50 pm
    
    Good afternoon Diane and Flerp,
    Diane, administrators won’t throw out kids who refuse to wear masks. They don’t want to deal with the parents and they don’t want to risk their jobs. Also, I find it insulting that the discussion is only about the dangers of covid to kids. What about the teachers who are older and at more risk vaccinated or not? Does anyone give a rat’s ass about them? Kids should be mandated to get the covid vaccine or they don’t set foot in a school. Period. Flerp, you shouldn’t worry about kids having to wear masks. I tell them all day long to wear them properly and pull them up. Most of the time, they ignore me. I walk into the girls bathroom and there are 10 girls in there with no masks on laughing and talking in close quarters. There are about 100 kids eating in the cafeteria screaming and yelling with no masks on. I know teachers who have serious medical issues. But as long as the kids have their “freedom” to do whatever they want in terms of mask wearing, they can do what they want and to hell with everyone else. There aren’t enough administrators, teachers and staff to monitor kids all day long. It’s all going to hell. So, don’t worry, the kids are fine. They are exercising their freedom to refuse to wear a mask and give everyone else the proverbial finger all day long. Unfortunately, the more covid spreads, the more mutations we will have and so we will never be rid of this mess.
    
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  - FLERP! says:
    
    September 22, 2021 at 5:08 pm
    
    “Flerp, you shouldn’t worry about kids having to wear masks. I tell them all day long to wear them properly and pull them up. Most of the time, they ignore me.”
    
    Yes, I assumed this would be the case. And I agree with you that the discussion should not be about the dangers of Covid to kids. But it’s such a powerful rhetorical tool that people continue to use it.
    
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LetThemLearn says:

September 22, 2021 at 10:19 am

Same thing happening in my district and similar(Ohio) districts. Parents who open enrolled their kids to another district that required masks, have revoked their open enrollment and returned to their home district without a mask requirement. Parents who sent kids to the home district that required masks, open enrolled to another district not requiring masks. Therefore, many boards are voting to not require masks in order to secure per pupil funding.

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- dianeravitch says:
  
  September 22, 2021 at 10:51 am
  
  The unvaccinated and unmasked will find themselves excluded from many jobs, public places, transportation.
  
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moeone2015 says:

September 22, 2021 at 10:59 am

I suppose the parents who are up in arms over a masking mandate will also demand that the school board NOT require the COVID vaccinations when they become available for the student populations. I guess they would prefer their children live with the possibility of becoming very sick and/or dying because of the COVID virus. The mentality of this stupid people is totally beyond me. I really, really cannot understand the lack of logical thinking and caring for the anti-maskingand anti-vac people. And, I am amazed at the lack of backbone the members the board of education displayed by caving into the parents.

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NoBrick says:

September 22, 2021 at 11:58 am

“There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge.”

You are entering the DOLLAR Zone…

Where the faux advocates of science ignore
CDC science.

Community spread (transmission) is HOW/WHY the
virus spreads.

COVID-19 spreads when respiratory droplets,
generated when people cough, sneeze, sing,
talk, or breathe.

These droplets can be breathed in by other people
or land on their EYES, noses, or mouth.
Touching eyes, nose, or mouth with hands that
have the virus on them, infects as well.

The mask refusal quacks illogically as does
ignoring the community spread of large groups
in confined spaces.

It seems there’s no remaking the “logic”
window once it’s broken, so let’s blame
the maskless…

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- speduktr says:
  
  September 22, 2021 at 6:27 pm
  
  Again, I have no idea what your point is. It seems to me that you waffle between mask/no mask arguments. We have plenty of rigorous studies showing that masking decreases the chance of spreading the virus. Is it a perfect solution? No. Are there any perfect solutions? No, but then there are no guarantees that wearing a seat belt will save my life. THEY REDUCE THE RISK!!! I think you agree but am not at all sure.
  
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  - NoBrick says:
    
    September 23, 2021 at 9:32 am
    
    My point? Shirley you jest. I’m as sharp as a marble.
    My degreement has nothing to do with anything.
    
    If you have to wear a mask in order for my mask to
    work, and you have to be vaxxed in order for my vaxx
    to work, when you use your brain, mine still doesn’t
    work.
    
    Just because the CDC sez:
    
    Community spread (transmission) is HOW/WHY the
    virus spreads.
    
    There are no perfect solutions. Virus distancing
    just seemed to work before you needed to get jabbed
    so my jab would work, or you needed to mask up so
    my mask would work.
    
    Hence blame the jabless-maskless for the community
    spread of large groups in confined spaces.
    
    The DOLLAR zone is banking on it…
    
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  - speduktr says:
    
    September 23, 2021 at 11:27 am
    
    Your mind and my mind are on different planets. We apparently agree that there are no perfect solutions. THERE NEVER ARE!! So we go with the imperfect. Wear your damn mask, stay the hell way from me, and get your f****** shot! Chances are that both of us will survive. And yes, I will blame those who refuse to follow the science and scream about their rights. They endanger everyone.
    
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  - dianeravitch says:
    
    September 23, 2021 at 11:48 am
    
    The CDC reported that unvaccinated people are 10 times more likely to be hospitalized and to die than those who are vaccinated. I got my Moderna booster.
    
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