Posted on 09/23/2021 5:24:04 PM PDT by lightman
Pennsylvania School administrators are trapped in the middle of the school mask debate and need better communication from the state Department of Health. That was the testimony Thursday during a hearing of the Senate Education Committee that explored the impact of the Department of Health’s order requiring masking of students and children at schools and daycare centers.
“Have you ever tried to put a mask on a 2-year-old and have them wear it all day? How about 10-minutes without them touching it? Often times bodily fluids from their nose and mouth soak the mask and it ends up being a suction cup to their face,” Jessica Daugherty, director of Lititz Christian Early Learning Center testified. “It becomes more contaminated with germs than if they had nothing on at all.”
The center aims to partner with parents and support their wishes when children are in the center’s care, Daugherty said. But the mask mandate cripples the relationship between parents and the center by forcing the center to enforce the mandate.
“I was appalled at the level this administration would go to, to control the level at which masks are worn,” Daugherty testified, recalling when she received notice of the mandate from the Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning. “Not only did the choice of wearing a mask get taken away from the parent, but the obligation of requiring that mask was placed on the childcare provider.”
The notice gives the center the choice of complying with the mandate or risk losing its license to operate. The order is not optional and failure to comply will lead to an initial citation for non-compliance, with a 10-day window to come into compliance or have your license downgraded to provisional. That would result in the inability to apply for or receive the Child Care Stabilization Grant. Continued non-compliance would result in an emergency removal order.
‘It’s About Control’
“Honestly, this is no longer about masks; it’s about control. Who has it? Not the parents,” Daugherty said. “If we do not make some changes, the rope of freedom we now know will grow shorter, and the children we are providing quality care for will only know control without choices.”
Barry Fillman, administrative director at Jefferson County-Dubois Area Vocational-Technical School testified that ordinarily, families show up at board meetings or have conversations with educators and they work together to resolve problems, but that is not how it works with the mask mandate.
“The people in education have little control over what happened when this fire was lit. And then threats from the government pile on to an already intense situation. You should realize this,” Fillman said.
“Great people are being pushed to a breaking point. The only thing that can solve this is for people from both sides to get together and actually work together and figure out a way to involve families instead of driving them out. Pushing parents out of the process with a poorly written, ill-timed mandate and then stoking their pain without actually solving their grievance is taking its toll.”
Just as schools were starting this fall, Pennsylvania’s acting Health Secretary Alison Beam issued an order effective Sept. 7 requiring masks to be worn inside K-12 school buildings, early learning programs, and childcare providers. Before that, schools had been told they were to determine their own rules at the local level. The mandate caught many schools by surprise.
“We as school administrators have been put in a position to absorb everything that politics creates, and it’s breaking the will of decent, loving people,” Fillman said. “We work so hard to build trust with all of our stakeholders, especially with our families, and I’m begging you to stop pitting us against one another at every level.”
Michael Bromiriski, superintendent of the Hempfield School District said schools are getting less interaction with the Department of Health compared to last year, and that schools have been doing the department’s work, including case investigation work, contact tracing, communications with parents and guardians, quarantining students and staff, issuing isolation directives and reporting COVID-19 cases.
Last-Minute Changes
Yet a day before school was to start, Bromiriski told The Epoch Times the school received word from the Department of Health that “Schools do not issue quarantine or isolation directives, but rather assist Department of Health staff with identifying close contacts.”
The department said CDC guidance would serve as public health best practices for schools. Schools are not required to follow the CDC guidance, but it is strongly encouraged.
The school wanted some clarifications because it was already getting pushback from parents about their authority to mandate masks and quarantines, Bromiriski testified. The department responded that any close contact to a COVID-19 case would receive a legally binding quarantine order from the state.
The school asked what they should tell parents, and suggested “As a close contact, we have provided your contact information to the Department of Health and someone from the Department of Health will be in touch with quarantine information.” The department said that was a perfect response, Bromirski said.
But parents are not receiving quarantine information from the Department of Health.
“Parents look to us and wonder why we can exclude their children from school, because the Department of Health has not contacted them,” Bromiriski said. “We are attempting to abide by the directions we have been given by the Department of Health, but they are not following through in their stated responsibilities.”
The current mask mandate was ordered after many schools already opened with a mask optional policy.
“To say this changed caused an extreme amount of anger, frustration and volatility in our communities is an understatement.” Bromiriski said educators are being threatened. “In the span of one day, I was informed that I could be arrested if I followed the order and if I didn’t follow the order. Our communities are divided, and the faith in public education is diminishing.”
Lack of Communication
When the mandate was ordered, Bromiriski said, the Department of Education sent schools an email address to use for communication.
“But email limits the ability to truly communicate and it does not allow for meaningful dialogue that brings about clarity and understanding about information that must be interpreted and ultimately enforced,” Bromirski said. School leaders began requesting meetings with the Department of Health and the Department of Education to get clarity on some of the details in the mandate but could not get a meeting until an unexpected 15-minute conversation with a Department of Health policy person, on Wednesday, the day before the hearing.
“I don’t have a way, other than sending emails or leaving phone messages, to get in touch with anybody at the Department of Health,” Bromiriski, said.
The Departments of Health and Education were both asked to attend the hearing but did not because the mask mandate is being challenged in court, said Republican Senator Scott Martin who organized the hearing. “The Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Education (PDE) are continuously communicating with schools about the constantly evolving response to COVID-19,” Department of Health Deputy Press Secretary Maggi Barton told The Epoch Times in an email. “As such, DOH has offered one-on-one support with numerous schools throughout the pandemic, prior to and during the 2021-2022 school year. Including just yesterday, when the PDE shared the following resources created by DOH with all schools: additional guidance to support schools with responding to COVID-19 cases and outbreaks in schools,” Barton said.
This guidance includes two flowcharts—“What to Do When There’s a Positive COVID Case” and “How to Respond to a COVID-19 Outbreak”—for quick access to managing cases. “More specific detail on isolation, quarantining, and case investigations are available on the PDE website,” Barton said. “DOH is committed to providing information to school districts and will continue to work with the school districts and sister agencies on these important issues.”
But he didn't like the "mask-optional" option that over 80% of them chose.
So Tommie the Commie aka Tommie the Tyrant changed the rules in the middle of the game; or more precisely, well into the first weeks of school.
The District Attorneys of at least three Counties (Lancaster, Lebanon, and York) have instructed Police NOT to issue citations for violations of mask orders because they absolutely WILL NOT PROSECUTE.
Pennsylvania Ping!
Please ping me with articles of interest.
FReepmail me to be added to the list.
Note to said administrators...
“There’s nothing in the middle of the road but a yellow stripe and dead armadillos.”
Jim Hightower
You're free to do as you want, as long as what you want is what I want.
There is an easy way to stop mask mandates, allow Citizens to SUE Public Employee’s and Elected Officials in small claims court for violating thier own Health Orders:
Any US Citizen or Legal US Resident that can Articulate a Reasonable Suspicion that a Public Employee has Violated an Emergency Health Order in any way, Shall be Entitled to Damages equal to but not less than the Maximum Monetary Award available in Civil Small Claims Court.
GAME OVER!!
Now that is how you fight back!
No. The school administrators need to stop listening to Tommie’s so-called health administrators. He’s a lame-duck governor who is carrying Joe Biden’s water attempting to keep the Democrat electorate terrified.
I don't understand this. Jeffery Toobin was fired from CNN because he was mask debating on a zoom call so I know it's not okay yet school officials ...
Oh, I just looked up the details of the Toobin case. Uh, never mind.
Tommie’s Secretary of Health is merely “acting”—awaiting Senate confirmation. Likewise his Secretary of State. The Secretary of Education has been properly confirmed.
From: Retain Mike
Sent: Saturday, September 4, 2021 8:16 PM
To: Rogue River Press (editor@rogueriverpress.com)
Subject: Mask Mandate
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) proclaimed its latest policy about masks and our governor mandated wearing by children as school begins.
However, the best science the CDC can provide is uncontrolled studies highlighting first such groups as 139 hairdresser clients, 382 sailors on the U.S.S. Roosevelt, 124 Beijing households, and 839 Thailand residents subject to contact tracing. All results come from observation followed by personal judgement, and none result from the mathematical disciplines used to evaluate rigorously complex environments. In the same article the CDC disparages the 2020 randomized controlled trial (RCT) in Denmark involving 4,862 participants, which found no benefit to wearing masks to prevent infection.
The disciplines of a RCT divides participants into different groups on a randomized basis. Random assignment means that factors not specifically controlled can cancel each other out by appearing equally in both groups. One group receives the treatment (which in this case was the mask) and the other group does not. Researchers can isolate the one variable and are not able to introduce biases to produce a preferred outcome. RCT’s are considered the highest standard for this type of research. Therefore, the most reasonable approach for the CDC would be to consider this study as a benchmark against which others would be evaluated, including studies from many other countries which found masks ineffective and even harmful.
This represents an especially valid approach, since the first four combined from their May scientific brief have less than half the participants of the Danish study.
Do Masks Work?
https://www.city-journal.org/do-masks-work-a-review-of-the-evidence?wallit_nosession=1
Effectiveness of Adding a Mask Recommendation to Other Public Health Measures to Prevent SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Danish Mask Wearers: A Randomized Controlled Trial
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33205991/
Science Brief: Community Use of Cloth Masks to Control the Spread of SARS-CoV-2
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-briefs/masking-science-sars-cov2.htm
Absence of Apparent Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from Two Stylists After Exposure at a Hair Salon with a Universal Face Covering Policy — Springfield, Missouri, May 2020
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6928e2.htm
Surgeon Shows CDC Top Evidence On Why Wearing Masks Work https://freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3988508/posts
Face masks for children: Both ineffective and dangerous
https://www.wnd.com/2021/09/face-masks-children-ineffective-dangerous/
All the tragic potential harms of face masks
https://www.wnd.com/2021/09/tragic-potential-harms-face-masks/
No, not really. You either believe in laws or not.
Acute Paedorouthoúniphobia
(Irrational fear of children's nostrils)
Clowns on one side, Fools on the other - Stuck in the middle with you.....
(Not lightman, but our current occupants of the WH)
Dr uses vape clouds to illustrate how masks do not work (2:55 min.)
Noting that there are risks with kids taking too much vitamin D3, artificial lighting urbanites might consider daily vitamin D3 supplements to help natural immunity do its job in my non-medical opinion.
Our greatest weapon against the coronavirus is Vitamin D: Board-certified pathologist (3.29.21, probably no lucrative government contracts to be made from making vitamin D3 imo.)
Dr. Ryan Cole #StoptheMandate (excellent 32 minute video with transcript) (8.15.21)
Vitamin D Can Help Reduce COVID-19 Risks: Here’s How (last year, 9.13.20)
Too many chicken5hits went into hibernation and avoided being outdoors like the plague.
They have no one but themselves to blame.
PING FOR TOMORROW
What’s going on in PA schools and daycares is absolute insanity.
Parents, pull the kids from daycare and public school, and homeschool them; do whatever it takes to make it work.
There is no debate. To say so requires ignoring the science. Masks do not work, in fact they do more harm than good.
The problem school administrators have is that people are saying, “No”. They are losing their control. Control is what this is about. They want to control you, your children and grandchildren.
Every single leftist school administrator needs to be replaced. Every other school administrator that doesn’t fight the leftist school administrators needs to be replaced. Teachers unions need the be abolished. Leftist teachers need to be fired. Their lives need to be made miserable because they are and have been destroying America.
Masks are:
1) a sign of submission, subversion and subjugation
2) mandated in order to dehumanize
3) virtue signaling devices
4) meant to provide constant reinforcement of fear
5) used to destroy community, friends and family normal communication
6) implemented to create isolation, confusion, anxiety, destroy human connectivity, trust and interactions
7) mandated to exacerbate illness
8) intended to aid in the abandonment of the belief and reliance on our immune systems
9) intended to refute integrous science
10) signal to positions of power that you are willing to give up all of your rights and freedoms based on anything they say, even if it is a BIG FAT LIE!
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