A few weeks ago, I wrote an opinion piece expressing my displeasure with the Southern Boone school board’s decision to abandon their masking policy just days after it was first implemented. I wrote, “These are good people. They care about our community. I believe they have good intentions. But I also believe they made a terrible mistake.”
I stand by that statement. Every word of it.
For those who have taken exception with school administrators who have barred parents and other visitors from entering school buildings for holiday parties and other occasions in order to prevent exposing students and teachers to Covid, I would hope that as they voice their concerns, they would be careful to recognize that the principals and assistant principals of our schools are good people who are doing what they think is best to keep people safe. Unfortunately, a vocal minority in our community has started beating the drum of tyranny and parents’ rights, insinuating that administrators are deliberately depriving parents of their opportunity to make precious memories with their school-aged children.
I personally know most of the administrators in our district. Some have young children of their own whose lives are also being affected by Covid restrictions. Believe me, if anyone thinks these principals enjoy restricting parental participation in school parties, assemblies, etc., then those folks have absolutely no idea what they are talking about.
There is not an evil conspiracy against parents taking place within our school district. Our principals are genuinely good human beings who worked their way through college in order to earn bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, and even doctoral degrees in education. They didn’t go through all of those years of grueling preparation as part of a diabolical plan to deprive parents of their right to attend their kids’ Halloween parties at school. They put in all that hard work in order to improve the lives of children. Period.
None of those administrators were taught how to lead a school during a pandemic. I truly believe they are doing the best they can. This particular pandemic has killed nearly 800,000 Americans in less than two years, and our principals have been following CDC guidelines, county health recommendations, and local mitigation plans in order to minimize their students’ exposure to the virus. One of those measures has been a policy of limiting the number of people allowed in school buildings. With a shocking number of adults who refuse to get vaccinated or wear masks, who can blame principals for doing what they can to prevent potentially exposed visitors from infecting students and teachers?
A handful of unreasonable and loud parents, that’s who.
Some parents in our district have accused administrators of breaking a district policy guaranteeing parental access to schools. These folks are anti-mask, anti-vax, Covid-deniers who seem to think that school administrators are a socialist, power-hungry cabal bent on depriving parents of their liberty. To fight this oppression, they say parents should have more control over how the district operates. Many of these people also feel that parents should have more of a say in what is taught and how it is taught.
Of course, they don’t mean that ALL parents should have such input. They really believe that only those parents who are conservative, anti-government Christians should have more influence. In other districts, this is the argument parents have used to prevent the teaching of racism in this nation’s history and its continuing negative influence. This is the same argument religious leaders and parents have used to justify the teaching of Christian creationism in public schools. This is the same justification for barring sex education and references to LGBTQ+ people.
Make no mistake, these folks do not want more input from parents like me who believe in science, history, and the Constitutionally-mandated separation of church and state.
In order to advance their ultra-conservative agenda, I predict that some of these parents will run for school board. Recently a conservative school board in Southlake, Texas, that has cracked down on the teaching of critical race theory, made headlines for requiring educators to teach opposing views of every topic including racism—and the Holocaust. In other words, if a teacher wants her students to read a book about the horrific slaughter of six million innocent Jews, the students must also read a text that supports Hitler’s Final Solution. Keep this in mind when the next school board election takes place.
School boards should not have political agendas. Neither should school administrators. I can tell you that our principals in Southern Boone do not allow politics to influence their decisions. They simply do what they can to keep students and teachers safe while fostering an environment for a quality, well-rounded education for our children.
The Southern Boone school board held a public meeting last week to gauge parents’ opinions about whether or not the district should open its doors to visitors. An educator who observed the meeting used one word to describe the behavior of some of the parents who spoke: “Shameful.”
Ultimately, the board decided not to allow visitors in school buildings for class Halloween parties, but they did commit to revisiting the policy in the near future.
It is my hope that the board continues to bar visitors in school buildings until the pandemic is behind us. No one is happy about missing kindergarten concerts and holiday parties, but it sure beats burying a loved one. If those outraged parents would support vaccine mandates, then the pandemic might be over sooner. Unfortunately, their political opinions and personal desires mean more to them than scientific facts and the welfare of their fellow human beings.
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