Atascadero school board members’ COVID comparisons spark petition for removal
Two members of the Atascadero school board equated COVID-19 vaccine mandates with the Holocaust and mask protesters with civil rights activists like Rosa Parks, sparking a petition demanding their removal from the board.
The online petition calls for the impeachment, recall or resignation of board President Terri Switzer and Trustee Ray Buban in the wake of their comments at the Atascadero Unified School Districts Board of Trustees’ meeting on Tuesday.
About an hour and a half into the March 1 meeting — which had been contentious and included emotional testimony from parents, community members and students regarding the soon-to-be-lifted mask mandate — Switzer pulled out a piece of paper with prepared comments regarding her dissatisfaction with the current government.
She spoke about how she was denied access to the Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center in San Luis Obispo on Feb. 29 while attempting to visit a family member.
“Because, like the Holocaust, I could not prove if I was a German or a Jew — oh, I mean my vaccine status,” she said, reading off the paper. “This is New World Order, man-made germ warfare that has crippled this country and is cause for alarm.”
Switzer’s comments appear to compare her choice of showing whether she was vaccinated against COVID-19 and therefore seemingly unable to visit a family member in the hospital, to being Jewish in Europe during World War II and getting sent to a concentration camp in a genocide that murdered 6 million people.
Shortly after Switzer gave her impassioned remarks, Buban, who was attending the meeting virtually though Zoom, joined in with another comparison.
He was unhappy with the way students who were protesting the mask mandate were reportedly being treated, and spoke about how he had heard from district Superintendent Tom Butler about the repercussions the students were facing.
“He assures me that that’s all been taken care of, and that your children are no longer being segregated, disrespected and treated like third-class citizens, or someone that should be sitting in the back of the bus,” he said during the meeting.
In his comments, Buban appeared to liken students protesting the mask mandate because they don’t want to wear them to Rosa Parks and Black civil rights activists who protested being forced to sit at the back of public buses because of the color of their skin.
Atascadero grad launches petition calling for board members’ removal
The comments from Switzer and Buban quickly sparked outrage from some in the community.
A petition started by an Atascadero High School graduate has garnered more than 370 signatures as of Friday morning.
“’District employees should treat parents/guardians and other members of the public with civility, courtesy and respect,’” the petition quotes from school board policy, referencing Switzer’s comments. “Many of the members that are within the Atascadero Unified School District find the precedent being set by the above quote to be in direct violation of this Board Policy as it furthers the existingly disproportionate representation (of) students through race and ethnicity along with an (sic) tragic event that should not be compared to be unvaccinated. Comparing being unvaccinated to the Holocaust is highly inappropriate and disrespectful as those who lost their lives in that event didn’t have a choice.”
The petition says Buban’s comments also violated board policy, which states: “An employee’s religious or political activities, or the lack thereof, shall not be grounds for any discrimination or disciplinary action by the district, provided these activities do not violate board policy, administrative regulations or local, state or federal laws.”
Buban’s comments were “highly discriminatory as many members of the African American race dealt with things throughout different centuries that they couldn’t control,” the petition says. “Those who are anti-maskers are nowhere close to what many people of color had to deal with. People of color were born with the race that they have. Those who don’t wear their mask is a choice.”
Switzer and Buban did not respond to Tribune requests for comment.
Atascadero Unified School District students are required to wear masks indoors at school until after March 11, when the state mask mandate will be lifted.
This story was originally published March 4, 2022 at 11:10 AM.
