School Board members need to lead

According

to last week's news, chiropractor Mattie Leto attacked school board member Rachel Bynum, declaring the health of school children is “none of her business.” He couldn’t be more wrong. Health and safety are critical components to be considered in the operation of a school district.

Leto’s personal attacks on Bynum are in defiance of her support for masking in schools to combat the spread of COVID-19 and its variants. It should come as no surprise then that his wife Lilla Fletcher is challenging Bynum for her seat on the school board. In explaining her own position on masking, Fletcher says “since I am not a medical processional” parents are more qualified to decide whether their children should wear masks. I doubt that Fletcher is a herpetologist either, but I dare say she wouldn’t allow rattlesnakes to run free on school property.

In a second school board race, the challenger “thinks it’s time for new blood,” his blood to be exact. He too, apparently favors turning to parents for decisions, not just in the matter of masking but to outline curriculum as well.

With this exceptional degree of deference to parents, do we even need a School Board? And, as for certain parents, why the resistance to COVID-19 safety measures after years of accepting vaccinations and quarantine against polio, diphtheria, whooping cough and other diseases? Isn’t it time to leave politics out of public health?

While it’s good for school board members to be in touch with community sentiment, leaving decisions to parents is ducking responsibility. School Board members are elected to do more than listen and murmur trivialities. It’s their job to devise sound policy for the public good; that means grounded in facts, not hyperbole. For a rational, responsible and common sense approach to education we need to stick with the proven professionalism of Rachel Bynum and Larry Grove.

Sally Haynes

Sperryville