A group of concerned parents and others returned to the Iola school district’s board meeting Monday to discuss mask mandates and new COVID protocols, offering passionate and occasionally heated arguments on the matter.
It’s a scene playing out again and again, locally as well as across the state and nation, illustrating the bitter divide over educating students as the delta variant continues to cause a surge in illness.
Indeed, Monday’s meeting included passionate speeches, with two mothers storming out of the meeting after they’d had their say.
“I spoke to you a few weeks ago and I was very angry at the time because I felt my child might have to go into quarantine. So you can imagine the rage I feel now when my kid actually was exposed to COVID,” Paige Olson told board members at the start of the meeting.
Olson said she chose to have her son tested, under new procedures adopted by the board last week called “Test to Stay and Learn.” The policy allows students who have been exposed to be tested at school on the first, third and fifth day. Results are available in 15 minutes and, if negative, the child can stay in school.
If results are positive, or parents do not agree to have the child tested, they must quarantine.
“We opted for Stay and Learn and it was the hardest, most infuriating decision because he is the only one in his class who wears a mask besides one other girl. The mask that he wears protects other people, not himself,” she said. “I’m not going to sit in this meeting and listen to you debate whether my children’s lives matter or are worth saving, so I’m done.”
Olson then left the meeting.
Jessica Quinhones, another mother who has previously addressed the board, expressed frustration with elementary school principals who previously told board members masks were difficult for young children to wear.
“I’ve listened to all of you, including some teachers, talk about the inconveniences of wearing masks such as it fogs up your glasses or kids can’t see me smile and that’s more important than their lives,” she said. “You’re talking about more than 600,000 deaths.”
Quinhones urged board members to do more research on the matter.
Luke Bycroft, a local minister and Iola High School head basketball coach, countered Quinhones’ argument that although 662,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, only about 400 of those deaths were children.
“Children age zero to 17 are not in nearly as much danger as the rest of us,” he said.
That prompted Rachel Haigler to speak about his statement, her voice low, sad and punctuated by frequent sighs.
“You say only 400 but, to me, that could be my child,” she said. “This is a really frustrating issue on both sides. Every one of us cares about our children.”
She told board members they have a responsibility to protect children, their families and the larger community.
“We have lost 23 people so far in Allen County. That’s 23 people who were fathers, mothers, daughters. We haven’t lost any children. I don’t want us to.”
