By Richard Sullins | richard@rantnc.com
Public attention ahead of the Lee County Board of Education’s Tuesday meeting was likely focused on whether the district would continue its mask mandate, in place since August. It did, along a 5-2 vote identical to ones taken in recent months.
But the meeting’s most notable event was the board’s vice chair pushing back against criticism directed at the board over the past several months by several public commenters.
Christine Hilliard, who was elected to the board in 2018 as a Republican but who switched parties last September, made use of her opportunity to speak just before the board entered closed session.
“Over the last few months, the members of this body have endured some unprofessional comments from many people within our community over the requirements of masks in school,” she said. “These are comments that have been organized in large part by the Republican Party headquarters in this county. Many have levied untrue and unfair accusations as to the reason behind the decisions of this board, which have included totalitarianism, cowardice, and accusing our school nursing coordinator of lies.”
Hilliard went on to say the school board exists to educate children and that politics shouldn’t supersede that objective.
“Many of those who continue to lament about this topic have failed to take into consideration the ramifications of its reversal,” she said. “They frame the conversation over the matter as if there are no consequences when a child tests positive for COVID for others around them.”
Hilliard is a third grade teacher with Moore County Schools, which voted to drop its mask mandate in December just four days before classes adjourned for the holidays. By the time students returned on January 4, MCS was experiencing a rapidly escalating number of COVID cases that forced the Moore County Health Department to provide updated guidance, requiring students in schools where face coverings were optional to quarantine for 10 days after a positive COVID-19 test or exposure, instead of the five days required of students in schools where masks were required. The Moore County Board of Education reinstated its mask mandate on January 10.
Hilliard’s statement followed comments critical of the board, including from Lee County Republican Party Chairman Jim Womack and two Republican school board candidates.
Mask mandate continued
The 5-2 vote to continue the district’s mask mandate had Republican Board Chair Sandra Bowen and Hilliard, and Democrats Patrick Kelly, Pat McCracken, and Lynn Smith in favor, while Republicans Pam Sutton and Sherry Womack were opposed.
School Nurse Supervisor Mary Hawley Oates said before the vote that the numbers of active COVID-19 cases now being seen in the county are higher than ever over the life of the pandemic. Oates said the figures are staggering – 11,609 positive cases have been reported in the county since March 2020 and the percentage of positive tests is more than 30 percent. At Thanksgiving, the rate was just above 3 percent.
Board members’ questions focused on the pandemic’s effects on children, particularly in cases severe enough to require hospitalization. Bowen asked if Oates was aware of any children from Lee County who had been hospitalized with COVID.
“We are not seeing the kind of nationwide stats of kids on ventilators, but we certainly are seeing some that are seeking care,” Oates replied. “I worry a lot about kids with asthma or other kinds of pre-existing conditions. And babies are often the first person in the home to test positive for the virus and then others living inside the house get exposed and contract it.”
time to get kids out of mask!
And into the grave
Free the kids from dirty nasty mask
If you don’t want masks, what is the solution? Should we treat COVID like a cold? I guess if we get rid of the masks then the schools will have to shut down periodically due to rapid spread. Will parents be happy with that inconvenience? I understand both sides of the argument, but either way to go someone will be upset.
I would like to see the county invest in air-purifying systems like UV lights and HEPA filters for the HVAC systems so we can move towards getting everyone out of masks. Instead of putting mechanical measures in place to ACTUALLY reduce the spread of ALL viruses, they gave away millions of Federal COVID relief dollars to the teachers and administrators. Don’t forget not one person in the school administrations have suffered the loss of one dollar. They all have been paid no matter if schools were open or closed.
We know you would. We have seen all of your posts.
Seriously dude, we’ve seen you make that recommendation before. We got it.
I actually don’t think very many people at all understand both sides of the argument; particularly the point the vice-chair made. The argument is not over if masks are effective or not. The problem is the way the Governor of NC set up the Tool Kit all public schools must follow in response to COVID. So, if the county were to go mask optional as Moore County did and a kid tests positive, that kid and everyone around him/her has to quarantine regardless if they are wearing a mask or not. That is the argument she was making. It is simply about keeping as many kids in class as possible, not if masks actually work. Ask Moore County how their decision worked out for them. Hundreds of absences per school (no, that is not an exaggeration). It took that foolishness for them to reverse their decision after one month. The problem is, anyone paying attention could have seen it coming. But they bowed to the pressure of the fanatics there and now children are paying the price. Add that to the fact they haven’t had the opportunity for a proper education in the last two years. We will have an entire generation in a few years who will not even be close to meeting the standards necessary to graduate from high school, but some people just don’t give a crap. All they want is for those stupid masks to be gotten rid of. They in no way have their priorities in order. I say thank goodness we have 5 BoE members that can use their brain.
How many children 18 and younger have died from COVID? Less than 1,000 in the entire country. In fact more children have had adverse reactions to the vaccines that have died from COVID. https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/Provisional-COVID-19-Deaths-Focus-on-Ages-0-18-Yea/nr4s-juj3
Then why would they do all those ridiculous upgrades you keep me thing and bringing up.
The same CDC folks you reference above are the same people that recommend that children ages 5 and up get the vaccine. You cannot speak from both sides of your mouth Mrs. Roberta.
The upgrades I reference are not only for COVID, they reduce the spread of ALL viruses. Anyone that has ever taught or had children in school know, that when school starts after the kids have been away many people get sick. This has been a cycle long before COVID. By doing these upgrades, it will reduce the number of sick days for all who work in the environment. I am not talking out of both sides of my mouth. I am providing actual solutions that apparently you and many others can’t do. You scream “Get the kids out of masks!” But you provide no other solutions.
My kids wear masks everyday.