- May 5, 2024
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United in their stand against mask mandates in their children’s schools, residents filled the chambers at the Flagler County School Board meeting Tuesday, Aug. 17.
An hour and a half into public comments board attorney Kristy Gavin ordered Sheriff’s deputies to clear the room after Gavin and Board Chair Trevor Tucker repeatedly warned the audience not to clap or interrupt in other ways.
But a boisterous group refused to leave as Bunnell police joined deputies in dispersing the crowd.
“You have the right to be here, don’t leave,” one man yelled. “You have the right to be replaced,” another yelled to board members. “Shame on you,” a woman shouted. “This is our house,” said another.
School Board member Jill Woolbright called for decorum.
“I’ve wanted to hear from you since I’ve been elected,” she said. “I’m up here fighting battles for you.”
More than half an hour later, the meeting resumed with a crowd yelling from the lobby as speakers were called in individually.
With the first phase of public comments completed and the crowd thinning out, doors were opened again and the board finally got to its first agenda item.
While a change to the district’s mask policy was not on the agenda, Vice-Chair Colleen Conklin made a motion during Old Business to adopt a universal student mask policy for the next 90 days that complies with the governor’s order and allows parents to opt out.
“I would like to see us communicating more frequently about COVID,” she said. “All hospitals, airlines and airports require universal masking. Eight hundred physicians asked the governor to repeal (the ban on school mask mandates).”
Janet McDonald noted that the motion wouldn’t change the district’s current policy except for adding another step, a parental form, for students to forgo face coverings.
Cheryl Massaro asked how the district could enforce that.
After Gavin told the board that legally a mask order would have to be an emergency policy that could only stand for 90 days, McDonald asked, “How do we determine an emergency?”
The motion failed by voice vote and Conklin then made a motion to have universal masks on buses. That motion also failed by voice vote. Finally, Conklin made a motion to mandate universal masks for all students for the next 90 days. That motion was not seconded.
Apparently one of the reasons for the large attendance was a viral video of a parent’s confrontation with a school principal. Jessico Bowman said her 12-year-old son was taken out of class at Indian Trails Middle School on Monday, Aug. 16, and put in an isolation room with four other students he had never met until he could be picked up.
Bowman said over the weekend she had received “an obscure call from someone claiming to be from the health department.” She said the woman said her son “may have been in contact with someone who may have COVID.” The woman asked if her son had been vaccinated, Bowman said, and told her that if he provides proof of vaccination he could return to school Monday morning. Bowman told the Observer her family has a religious exemption for vaccinations.
Bowman said the school informed her Monday, Aug. 16, that he can return to school on Aug. 21.
Superintendent Cathy Mittelstadt admitted that communication between the district and parents can be improved.
“Listening tonight it is evident our communication has been faulty and I fumbled at times,” she said. “We absolutely must do better.”
