LAKE HUNTINGTON – A statewide issue hit home Thursday night as the Sullivan West School Board heard from angry parents regarding the New York State School Mask Mandate.
And the School Board listened and responded.

By a 7-2 vote, the board agreed to send New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul and the State Ed. Dept. a letter recommending the immediate end of the mask mandate and allowing schools to operate in a mask optional environment.

The school board will meet this week to finalize the letter.

Public Comment
More than a dozen parents attended Thursday night’s school board meeting – the largest crowd in quite some time according to board members.

Pete Johnston of Callicoon said his family “was tired of useless protocols imposed on our students.

“We elected the school board to provide the best environment for our kids,” he said. “And we are keeping them shackled with dirty cloth restraints.”

Johnston said 250 residents signed a petition in less than 5 days asking Sullivan West to remove the masks.

“You can [vote to remove the masks],” Johnston said. “You owe it to the kids. We the parents are the ones you answer to… We want normalcy.”

Sullivan West parent Ian Blumenthal asked the board, “Is there anything in writing if we do not follow the protocol? What would happen?”

Later in the meeting Interim Superintendent Dr. Kathleen Bressler told the audience about a public school in Long Island – Locust Valley – that was heavily reprimanded by the state for voting to remove masks.

“What are the penalties?” Dr. Bressler said. “They are $1,000 a day per child penalty for each one that is offending.”

She continued that the state could also withhold state aid – which amounts to 46 percent of the Sullivan West budget.

“We will not risk penalties or criminal charges [by voting to repeal the mask mandate],” she said.

Dr. Lauren Roman, a board certified family physician, said her research indicated, “There is no benefit of masks.”

She referenced more than 150 studies she has reviewed and offered the research to the board.
She outlined how the particles that cause COVID-19 are too small to be caught by most masks.

“They offer no protection,” Dr. Roman said. “Masks actually increase the risk of contracting infections. They cause harm and also limit oxygen intake.”

Sullivan West parent Craig Passante stood before the Board of Education and asked the crowd, “Who here is against our children wearing masks? Please raise your hand.”

With that nearly all the parents in attendance put up their hand.

Not so easy
If the school mask mandate is lifted, school officials warned that contingency plans would still need to be implemented.

“We still need to consider our medically fragile students, faculty and staff,” Dr. Bressler said.

She said there may have to be socially distant zones within the school, the continuance of a virtual meeting option and parents will need to communicate their children’s mask preference to their teachers, especially in the lower grades.

“This has been a difficult topic and we are looking to promote a caring environment,” Dr. Bressler said. “We represent everyone’s choices, masks or not.”

Countywide concern
Dr. Bressler said the School Superintendents from all eight Sullivan County public schools had the opportunity to meet with NYS Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther and NYS Senator Mike Martucci last week.

“All superintendents expressed concerns with masks,” Dr. Bressler said. “BOCES Superintendent Dr. Robert Dufour wrote a letter to the state asking for clear and concise guidelines and a timeline for the end [of the mask mandate].”

Dr. Dufour said in his letter, “We are requesting that clear and concise guidance, as well as a defined timeline, be given for the proposed end to the mask mandate.“Unfortunately, ‘after winter break’ does not apply to most upstate schools, as we typically do not hold a winter break in February or March.”

Dr. Dufour’s letter went on to ask for “clear and concise guidance on how an end to mask mandates in school will affect Contact Tracing, TTS, and the weekly testing of unvaccinated employees.

“Removing the requirement for masks inevitably negates the need for these testing mandates as we will be moving from a contained environment to a communal risk level,” the letter stated.

“A lot of these letters have been written [from School Districts] across the state,” Dr. Dufour said Friday. “Schools are held to a different standard.”

He noted that the New York State Dept. of Health – not the local school boards or administration – will decide when to end the mandate.

Two sides of the story
Sullivan West School Board Member Julie Gaebel noted, “I hope we are all respectful of everyone else when this mandate is lifted.”

One parent, Crystal Weston of Tusten, has four children in the district and said she is anticipating “high anxiety” by some students when the mandate is lifted.

“We need to support those students who are in need of masks,” she said. “This is their comfort. We need to support the kids in this process. It’s a huge concern.”

She also recommended keeping the school, classrooms and buses clean.

“There has been a huge decline in the cleanliness of buses,” she said.