Residents of Cuyahoga Falls had an opportunity to publicly speak about the decision of Cuyahoga Falls School District to extend the mask policy through October 29 during the October 6 school board meeting held at the Natatorium. The September board meeting was interrupted and adjourned before it even began after police were called to escort several people out who refused to comply with a mask requirement, and causing a disruption.
The police were in attendance as a precaution on October 6, and indeed needed to remove one individual who stood up and yelled “suck it harder” to a school board member.
Three individuals spoke against the mask policy.
Benjamin Groden, who would not identify his address, after speaking about children not being properly trained on wearing a mask, stated that the CDC website says mandating masks has very little impact. “Be a proud slave. Keep wearing that mask,” he proclaimed.
Matthew Skifstad, Class of 2002, said he does not envy school board members on the decision they have to make but wanted them to consider a more nuanced approach, and to consider “social distancing measures as we once did,” instead of requiring masks as the first defense. He spoke about his concern for his children, who are in elementary school, as not having the ability to social distance.
Brian Norris from Cuyahoga Falls, who attended last month’s meeting, said he had observed the girls’ volleyball team, a police officer, and custodian not wearing masks, yet they kicked him out for not wearing one. Norris stated, “little kids are completely not at risk for COVID 19 at all.” He also asked for a guarantee that the board would not be mandating the “experimental” shot.
In addition, five individuals spoke about their support for the mask policy. Jim Lang, a teacher and band director at Roberts Middle School, spoke on how the last year affected children with the need to be kept socially distant. “A piece of cloth is a small price to pay to avoid repeating that struggle,” he stated.
Sarah Banzhof, who started by asking if everybody could respect each other after Lang was booed, said “for some reason the idea protecting one another with the tools we have readily available, such as masks, has become a political anger-based hot topic in schools.” She also pointed to data provided by the school during which masks were optional–August 18-September 3. Cuyahoga Falls schools had 74 positive cases and 398 student quarantines. During the three weeks following September 7, when the mask mandates went in place, a total of 33 positive cases and 41 in quarantine demonstrated the effectiveness of the mask policy.
Kalyan Park, a 10 year old Cuyahoga Falls student, said, “It is super weird to be here because adults don’t think their kids should wear masks.” She spoke of her mother having to wear a mask when her uncle had leukemia. “No one had a problem with that then, but now they do?” Park concluded, after being interrupted by audience multiple times, with “just wear a mask for kindness.”
Rick Murphy wanted to express his support of the board’s mask policy, explaining that “this decision is not about bullying, communism, socialism, Nazism or any other -ism. This is about protecting students and teachers from a deadly disease.”
Likewise, Pastor Brian Saxe quoted from Proverbs 12:15. “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.” He continued by stating, “children should not be pawns in the culture wars of reckless fools and to not require masks in a pandemic is biblically foolish.”
Superintendent Nichols ended the meeting by saying, “I hate masks. I don’t wear them anywhere that I don’t have to wear them, but the reality is, keeping kids and teachers in school because when we did remote last year, we were okay at it, but we were not good at it.”
To hear the audio from the board meeting, visit Cuyahoga Falls City Schools YouTube page.
