You’re wrong, Paso school board. Requiring children to wear masks is not child abuse

Elected officials in Paso Robles — a community that has repeatedly rejected COVID mandates — have done it again.

Tuesday night, the Paso Robles school board voted 5-2 to make indoor masking optional for students, in direct defiance of current state policy.

The conservative board majority also rejected the advice of its own staff, which acknowledged the “desperate need to get back to normal,” but recommended following state policy on school masking “for the protection of the district, its fiscal responsibility, and the safety of our students and staff.”

The board’s decision carries a financial risk; the district’s insurer has indicated that it may not be covered for any damages that could arise as a result of its decision to disregard the state mandate.

That should have been reason enough to delay the vote, especially since the governor’s office is scheduled to announce a possible change in its school masking policy on Feb. 28.

Instead, the board majority chose to act immediately, after listening to angry, emotional parents who said their children were suffering from depression, anxiety, headaches and other ailments on account of being required to wear masks.

Several parents falsely claimed that face coverings provide no protection whatsoever, and recently appointed school board Trustee Frank Triggs implied that requiring children to wear masks is a form of child abuse.

Even county Supervisor Debbie Arnold weighed in; she sent a letter in support of dropping the school mask mandate.

At times, the meeting sounded like a pep rally, with the in-person crowd loudly clapping for every “pro mask choice” speaker.

“No one showed up in person to speak for the masks,” said one man. “I think that says a lot.”

It says even more when elected officials choose to ignore medical advice and take it upon themselves to issue health directives.

This was a political decision on the part of a far-right board that has embraced conservative values.

The Paso board could easily have held off deciding until after the governor’s Feb. 28 announcement on school masking.

Instead, it grandstanded, passing a resolution that, among other statements, criticized the governor’s school mask mandate as “ill-advised and in opposition to the educational and social ... goals of the state and the district. ...”

The resolution barely pays lip service to the fact that mandates were adopted in response to a deadly pandemic that has taken the lives of 442 San Luis Obispo County residents.

Given the board’s willingness to accommodate the demands of vocal parents, we can’t help but wonder what might come next.

Will the board decide that vaccines against childhood diseases should no longer be mandatory because parental choice is more important than public health?

Certainly, we can all Monday morning quarterback the decisions made by health professionals, especially when it comes to the COVID pandemic that has upended all our lives to such a degree.

But at the end of the day, they are in charge of setting public health policy — not school board trustees, not county supervisors, not city council members.

Our local electeds do not have the education, the knowledge or the experience to make medical policy, any more than a plumber or a police officer or an engineer.

Don’t believe it?

The next time you require medical care, who will you call?

A doctor, or your local school board member?

This story was originally published February 24, 2022 at 5:30 AM.