Posted on 09/18/2021 7:26:44 AM PDT by lightman
A Cumberland County school district reconsidering its COVID-19 safety plan is eliminating public comment on the matter after a number of residents expressed concerns with attending meetings filled with anti-maskers.
In an email to the community, the Cumberland Valley School District requested all comment regarding the fate of its coronavirus safety plan to be submitted in writing or over Zoom during Monday’s meeting. The deadline to submit comments is noon Monday.
Public participation and viewing of the meeting will only be available through Zoom, the school board said. Those who register to make comment on Zoom but are unable to access it on their own device can receive help at Mountain View Middle School at meeting time.
Anyone who cannot watch the meeting at home can attend a broadcast at the middle school, but they are required to wear a mask, the school board said.
The decision was made to eliminate in-person comment after community members told officials they did not want to attend meetings where a number of attendees were unmasked, the school board said.
“Unfortunately, forcing compliance with the [state mask mandate] as a condition of attendance at public meetings has been unsuccessful in nearly all Pennsylvania districts, or has resulted in the need to forcibly involve law enforcement.
“We do not believe that continuing to allow non-compliance, which many constituents have stated is a barrier to their attendance, or forcibly involving law enforcement are reasonable approaches if either can be avoided,” the school board’s email said.
Local law enforcement also reached out with concerns about general safety and crowd control, according to the school board.
Feeling pressure from parents who oppose students wearing masks at school, Cumberland Valley is considering abolishing its current health and safety plan, which was put in place to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. The school board intends to vote Monday.
Cumberland County has been in the “high” level of transmission since Cumberland Valley’s school year started last week (every county in Pennsylvania is seeing high transmission, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). The rising infection rate triggered Cumberland Valley to require masks starting last month. Before that, the district had approved an optional masking policy.
A majority of the nine school board members told PennLive they support keeping the plan unchanged for now. However, two of them chose to side with four other school directors during a sometimes-rancorous meeting last week.
Now the school board is taking steps to avoid the tension that erupted at the last meeting.
“By making these changes, we will be able to continue to offer the public an opportunity to provide live public comment while ensuring that the meeting is able to continue following the public comment period without disruption, which has unfortunately not been the case in many area school districts in the past several weeks,” the school board said.
School Board President Brian Drapp supports keeping the plan. He said his personal view is the focus of the board needs to be on keeping students in school five day a week for face-to-face education, given all these rules and regulations related to this issue.
“That’s what it comes down to,” Drapp told PennLive last week. “That’s what we need to base the decision on.”
The school board’s email concluded: “We believe that, by utilizing this plan, we will be able to hear all voices in our community and reduce the likelihood of conflict arising between groups with opposing positions that has led to violent and aggressive interactions in many other districts across the state and the nation.”
The Cumberland Valley School Board meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday.
covid used as an excuse to prevent you from voicing your dissatisfaction and to see what is really going on, up the ante, mass pull out of all students by parents and stop paying school taxes
A pro-2nd amendment, constitutional sheriff has the legal muscle to warn the schoolboard fascists that they’re skating on thin ice.
I don’t know about Cumberland County PA, but the DAs of nearby York, Lancaster, and Lebanon have all vowed NOT to prosecute school mask violators and have instructed all the Police in their counties NOT to issue citations.
“I don’t know about Cumberland County PA, but the DAs of nearby York, Lancaster, and Lebanon have all vowed NOT to prosecute school mask violators and have instructed all the Police in their counties NOT to issue citations.”
Reads like good news for us, the good guys.
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