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'I Recommended Not Responding': VA School Accidentally Responds to Email from Reporter About Mask Mandate
Townhall.com ^ | 17 January A.D. 2022 | Landon Mion

Posted on 01/17/2022 8:24:00 PM PST by lightman

A communications representative for a public school system in Virginia accidentally responded to a reporter seeking information used in their decision to continue with its mask requirement and what the district plans to do if Gov. Glenn Youngkin's (R) executive order allowing an opt-out of school mask mandates is followed.

Arlington Public Schools communications director Frank Bellavia, intending to recommend that his colleagues not respond to an email from a Daily Caller reporter, mistakenly replied instead to the reporter, who sought the data used to determine the district's claim that masks are effective in mitigating COVID transmission.

"FYI I recommended not responding to the daily caller. It won't get us anywhere," Bellavia wrote.

This comes after APS announced on Jan. 15 that it will continue with its existing mask mandate, which requires that all staff and students wear face coverings when indoors on school property and when riding school buses.

The announcement claimed that "Universal mask use has proven effective in keeping COVID-19 transmission rates low in our schools" but failed to include evidence supporting the assertion.

The continuation of the mandate also defies an executive order from Youngkin that gives parents an opt-out option for their children on school masking requirements.

"A child whose parent has elected that he or she is not subject to a mask mandate should not be required to wear a mask under any policy implemented by a teacher, school, school district, the Department of Education, or any other state authority," Youngkin's order states.

As a basis for its mask mandate, APS cited a Virginia law, SB 1303, which states that each school must "provide such in-person instruction in a manner in which it adheres, to the maximum extent practicable, to any currently applicable mitigation strategies for early childhood care and education programs and elementary and secondary schools to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 that have been provided by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

APS, however, is not the only school system in Virginia to defy Youngkin's order, with Richmond Public Schools, Fairfax County Public Schools and Alexandria City Public Schools among the other districts in the commonwealth announcing over the weekend that they will maintain mask mandates for students and staff.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: arlington; arlingtonpublic; arth; frankbellavia; glennyoungkin; loudon; mask; terrymcauliffe; virginia; winsomesears
Mask rebellion.

Maybe NO-VA should join the Peoples' Republik of Central Maryland.

1 posted on 01/17/2022 8:24:00 PM PST by lightman
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To: lightman

2 posted on 01/17/2022 8:24:59 PM PST by lightman (I am a binary Trinitarian. Deal with it!)
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To: lightman

No. You can keep it.


3 posted on 01/17/2022 8:47:27 PM PST by sauropod (Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...
Arlington Public Schools communications director Frank Bellavia, intending to recommend that his colleagues not respond to an email from a Daily Caller reporter, mistakenly replied instead to the reporter, who sought the data used to determine the district's claim that masks are effective in mitigating COVID transmission... The announcement claimed that "Universal mask use has proven effective in keeping COVID-19 transmission rates low in our schools" but failed to include evidence supporting the assertion.

4 posted on 01/17/2022 9:56:58 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: lightman

Virginia law, SB 1303 is only a law until August!


5 posted on 01/17/2022 10:31:22 PM PST by justme4now (Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it)
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To: SunkenCiv

We have some good people in Arlington but smucks like this and our Soros bought CA/DA are not among them.


6 posted on 01/18/2022 2:21:21 AM PST by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper (Figures )
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To: lightman
APS, however, is not the only school system in Virginia to defy Youngkin's order, with Richmond Public Schools, Fairfax County Public Schools and Alexandria City Public Schools among the other districts in the commonwealth announcing over the weekend that they will maintain mask mandates for students and staff.

Add Suffolk County Public Schools to the list of defiance as well.

Youngkin will soon need to understand that Democrats don't give up power easily and minor trivial matters such as losing elections won't stand in their way. They'll need to be forced to bend the knee.

7 posted on 01/18/2022 2:42:13 AM PST by Drew68 (Ron DeSantis for President 2024)
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To: lightman

List of 30 studies showing face masks are useless against COVID-19

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.18.21257385v1.full-text
https://swprs.org/face-masks-evidence/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29395560/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32590322/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15340662/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26579222/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31159777/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4420971/
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.01.20049528v1
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.30.20047217v2
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2006372
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2749214
https://www.cmaj.ca/content/188/8/567
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5779801/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19216002/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4420971/
https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/65/11/1934/4068747
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/bio/23/2/23_61/_pdf/-char/en
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01658736
https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/0195-6701(91)90148-2/pdf90148-2/pdf)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2493952/pdf/annrcse01509-0009.pdf
https://web.archive.org/web/20200717141836/https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/04/commentary-masks-all-covid-19-not-based-sound-data
https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25776/rapid-expert-consultation-on-the-effectiveness-of-fabric-masks-for-the-covid-19-pandemic-april-8-2020
https://www.nap.edu/read/25776/chapter/1#6
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/5/19-0994_article
https://academic.oup.com/annweh/article/54/7/789/202744
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6599448/
https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-1342
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00392-020-01704-y
https://clinmedjournals.org/articles/jide/journal-of-infectious-diseases-and-epidemiology-jide-6-130.php?jid=jide
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1130147308702355


8 posted on 01/18/2022 3:02:23 AM PST by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: lightman

The Little Left is going to continue The Revolution - even if the Big Democrats start to get cold feet.


9 posted on 01/18/2022 7:35:34 AM PST by Mr. Jeeves ([CTRL]-[GALT]-[DELETE])
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To: FreedomPoster
When Covid first hit in 2020,I and my fellow hospital volunteers were furloughed, but were asked to sew cloth masks for the hospital. I made over 200 masks, which I dutifully brought to hospital management, for which they thanked me profusely.

We returned to active volunteering in summer of 2021, wearing cloth masks. I eventually stopped wearing cloth masks after hearing that they were ineffective and switched to KN95, which I purchased on my own. As of last Tuesday, we were informed that all hospital staff and volunteers would be required to wear N95 masks, supplied by the hospital.

Go figure...

10 posted on 01/18/2022 8:28:12 AM PST by Inspectorette
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To: lightman

Let them keep running their “mandates” on masks at schools.

As long as each school provides all masking needs to their students and staff, free of charge. All masks are to be disposable to prevent cross-contamination with supposedly virus-contaminated masks. Masks to be issued as needed multiple times per day per student and staff as virus-contaminated masks must be changed often. Paid for by school district out of already existing budget.

As long as each such school site has biohazard disposal containers in each hallway, classroom, break room, and admin office.

As long as the biohazard disposal containers are emptied multiple times a day so as to prevent the build-up of contaminating virus by a person trained, certified, and equipped to handle biohazard materials. Biohazard specialists to be paid by the school district from already existing funds.

No multiple-use masks are allowed by students or staff. Multiple-use masks are simply biohazards shoved into pockets to ensure contamination spread as widely as possible. All masks in mask-mandated areas are to be disposable, worn no more than an hour each, provided by the mandating facility and disposed of according to the laws and rules regarding biohazard materials.

Wanna play? Lets play.

Wanna pretend you’re serious?

Then lets get serious.

Otherwise, sit down, shut up and do the job you’re paid to do.


11 posted on 01/18/2022 10:30:43 AM PST by Grimmy (equivocation is but the first step along the road to capitulation)
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To: Inspectorette

It took our morons in the national public health establishment 18 months to figure this out. Zero out their budgets, they’re clueless about public health and are simply a woke political operation.


12 posted on 01/18/2022 2:46:09 PM PST by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
The felon Soros will probably be given a funeral that includes visitation under the Capitol rotunda. Should be a big turnout, just to make sure he's really dead.

13 posted on 01/18/2022 4:40:52 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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