In recurring ritual, anti-mask parents vent at Peninsula School Board meeting

Since the pandemic began, it has become almost a ritual at Peninsula School Board meetings: a crowd of anti-mask activists lining up at the lectern for an hour-long, tag-team display of anger and angst.

The school board listened impassively at the meeting Sept. 23, and was not inclined to change the state-mandated policy that students must be masked.

Board Member Deb Krishnadasan reminded the audience that a maskless experiment in Kittitas County resulted in an upsurge of virus cases that nearly got the whole district shut down.

“Bottom line, masks are mandatory and they are helping keep our schools safe and open,” she said.

Commenters used their three-minute segments to denounce mask-wearing as “socialist,” “Marxist” and “mind-control.”

Board Member Chuck West reiterated his earlier comments about the mask mandate and mandatory vaccination of employees.

“I don’t know where we’re going from here,” he said. “I don’t like where we’re going with the mandates from the state requiring vaccination. I support all of our employees in their choices to do either.”

Statistics so far

District statistics show the mask policy seems to be working. According to the district dashboard, since school began Sept. 7, there have been no COVID-19 cases originating inside schools, and 20 cases from outside.

Cases originating outside of school were reported at Discovery, Evergeen, Purdy, Harbor Heights and Swift Water elementary schools, and at Harbor Ridge Middle School and all three high schools. Peninsula High School had four cases, Swift Water three, Purdy two and all the others one apiece.

Two groups of students were being quarantined: 23 at Purdy Elementary and 24 at Swift Water Elementary. Seven people were being quarantined at the Educational Service Center, five at Peninsula High School, three at Harbor Heights Elementary, and one each at Gig Harbor High School and Henderson Bay High School.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 358 children have been killed by COVID-19 in the United States as of August. The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department reported in August that 8 percent of current cases have been among children under the age of 10, and 20 percent have been among teenagers.

Complaints

Speakers had complaints about masks, vaccines and quarantine policies.

Michelle Hambly said “it is not my kid’s duty” to prevent others from being infected by wearing a mask. She also said “by the middle of last year we almost lost my son to suicide,” because he was so depressed from studying alone at home.

Amy Janson, the mother of a ninth-grader at Peninsula High School, complained that her daughter was placed in quarantine and no one would tell her why. “They said they had to protect the identity of the other child. Every time I asked a question, they said, ‘We can’t tell you that.’ She was wearing a mask, the other kid was wearing a mask.

“Prove to me that there was exposure,” she demanded. “No one has offered me any proof.”

She said she had to spend the next four days trying to find a COVID-19 test for her daughter, only to learn it had been available at school all along, because the girl was a member of the volleyball team.

(Superintendent Krestin Bahr said later in the meeting that the county health department’s method of determining exposure and contract tracing was “not workable,” and she plans to meet with Dr. Anthony Chen, the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Director, to discuss the matter.)

Jeff Wyman said his daughter, who is in preschool, “does not know what it is like to hug a friend, to whisper a secret in a friend’s ear.”

“Will they ever know anything else?” he continued. “Will we be doing this for the foreseeable future? At what point would we simply admit that, yeah, covid kills people, we’re not going to argue that, but are we just going to do this forever?”

He sat down to loud applause.

‘I don’t want my kid to get sick’

A man who disagreed identified himself only as Eric and said he lived in Harbor Crossing and had a child at Swift Water Elementary.

“I just want to thank you guys for everything you do to keep our kids safe,” he told the board. “Masks, vaccines, whatever. I don’t want them to get sick, and I don’t want them to die like some of my friends at work have.” The audience quieted.

I don’t care about any nonsense people read on the internet,” he said, as people in the front row began to scowl and fold their arms.

“My son has been wearing a mask all though kindergarten, and he’s fine. He doesn’t care,” Eric said. He turned to face the audience.

“Ya’ll are a bunch of children over minor inconveniences when more than half a million people have died,” he added, drawing angry shouts. “Sorry,” he said, “I get a little passionate about this. I just want my kid to be safe.”

This story was originally published September 28, 2021 at 5:00 AM.