The Knox County school board endured an hour or so of public comment Wednesday before deciding the best plan for battling Covid and its variants is no plan at all. (George Benson sings about it here.)
Superintendent Bob Thomas has been clear. He will enforce a mask mandate, but only if the school board by majority vote instructs him to. Otherwise, Thomas has strongly encouraged folks to mask up but is making it optional for students, teachers and staff.
The board heard the comments, debated among themselves and then voted 4-5, killing a proposal by Daniel Watson to delegate authority to Thomas to “align with” recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and state and local health officers.
Voting with Watson were Jennifer Owen, Evetty Satterfield and Virginia Babb – from the city-most districts 1, 2, 3 and 4. Opposition came from board chair Susan Horn, Betsy Henderson, Patti Bounds, Mike McMillan and Kristi Kristy.
Susan Horn
Horn didn’t talk much, but what she said was wrong. “We (the BOE) are here to uphold the freedom and liberty of people. I do think people can make good choices.”
No, Susan. The BOE is here to educate kids, by carefully allocating available money and making wise policy – based on reason rather than emotion. We expect the BOE and staff at the least to keep kids alive.
And in that regard, Satterfield spoke after the vote. “In the community where I live, we’re battling two pandemics: Covid and gun violence. We’ve lost six children this year.” She implored the audience to “take the same energy and passion” that they have used on masks to the city and county mayors to seek solutions. She recited the name of each dead child and said, “You deserved better.”
Kristi Kristy called on Thomas to provide information on Covid outbreaks so parents “can make their own risk assessment.”
Owen wants more information as well. She asked Thomas to let board members know if staff members die.
Patti Bounds (swimming) and Mike McMillian (football) basically said there is no point mandating masks at school when children are not wearing them the balance of the time. Bounds showed slides of unmasked spectators at the city swim meet.
On Thursday, the Knox County Health Department showed 334 residents hospitalized with Covid and reported only five ICU beds available across 19 area hospitals. To date, 664 Knox Countians have died with Covid, none in the 0-17 age group.
Social media is effective at rallying the troops for one side or another, but it also is a place of misinformation, anger and fear.
The chief misinformation out there is that people (parents, students, etc.) should be allowed to choose whether to wear a mask. That position would be valid if the mask protected the wearer. But with an air-borne virus, the mask protects the people around the mask wearer. My mask protects you; your mask protects me.
So, the mask wearer makes a statement, not of fear but of kindness. The anti-maskers are making a statement too.
Sandra Clark is editor/CEO of Knox TN Today.