Comal ISD split on mask option
Tensions were high at Comal Independent School District’s board meeting Thursday evening, as a divided crowd of more than 100 parents, students and teachers gathered to support or deride trustees’ abrupt decision this month to make masks optional in school buildings.
The board voted 5-2 on March 9 to leave it up to individuals whether to wear masks on campuses, skirting recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Texas Education Agency and opening a rift among district families in a debate that has muddled safety with politics.
“Not only have the schools been made unsafe, but they are now divided,” Courtney Schulze, a junior at Canyon High School, told trustees during the meeting. “The school talks about community and being together as Canyon Nation, but how can you say that when you have caused separation over our own safety? And you cannot say there isn’t division when you can see it in this room right now.”
Those in the audience sat or stood on opposite sides of the room depending on their stance
regarding masks, with most not wearing them. Some held signs that read, “My child, my choice,” or, on the other side of the room, “Love thy neighbor. Wear a mask.”
The board’s decision came one week after Gov. Greg Abbott announced he was lifting the statewide mask mandate and several days after TEA said school boards could vote to shirk mask requirements as vaccinations slowly ramped up. New coronavirus infections continue in the community, albeit at lower rates than at other points in the pandemic.
After the vote, board president David Drastata said in a letter to parents that despite the proven efficacy of safety protocols such as mask wearing and physical distancing in keeping the virus from spreading on campuses, the board is “also about giving parents choice.” Masks had been required since the start of the school year.
“I appreciate that this decision recognizes that I, as a parent, am best equipped to make health and safety decisions for my child,” parent Emily Pauly told board members Thursday. “I believe that the students in Comal ISD have benefited from the decision to offer both in-person and remote learning, and I’m glad that we now have the opportunity to weigh the benefits versus risks for masks as well.”
The revised mask policy, announced less than 12 hours before it took effect at the start of the next school day, brought an immediate backlash from district parents and employees who said the decision, made without a chance for their input, left them blindsided and betrayed.
One parent launched an online petition that night asking board members to reconsider. By Thursday, it had about 2,500 signatures. About 900 have signed a petition created around the same time to show support for the board’s decision.
Olivia Weisinger, a former district parent who started homeschooling her children in August and runs the Open Comal County Schools Safely Facebook page, worked with Comal ISD middle school teacher and parent Kate Fraser to survey district parents and employees about the board vote. The questionnaire was posted on social media and distributed on flyers with a scannable QR code, Fraser said.
About 77 percent of parents and 89 percent of employees among the 724 respondents said they favored having a mask requirement in place through the end of the school year. About 15 percent of all respondents said they wanted parents to have a choice.
Trustee Tim Hennessee, who with Trustee Russell S. Garner voted against changing the mask policy, said he had asked administrators at all six of the campuses in the district he represents for their staff’s preferences regarding masks. At each campus, he said, at least 75 percent of staff said they wanted to keep the mask requirement.
The board of neighboring New Braunfels ISD voted March 8 to keep the district’s mask requirement until the end of the school year. The district had sent out a survey and found that 70 percent of parents and 78 percent of employees said they wanted to keep the existing policy.
Hennessee, Drastata and board secretary Michelle Ross are up for re-election in May.
At Thursday’s board meeting and on social media, parents expressed frustration that giving people the choice to not wear a mask came at the expense of other parents’ ability to choose to put their children in in-person learning, which is more effective for many students.
“My son with special needs does not have that choice anymore,” said Amy Brown, because he is five times more at risk for complications from COVID-19 than the general population. “For children in the special education department, it’s a choice between a free and appropriate public education and their lives.”
About 80 percent of the district’s students are learning in person, and any family can choose to switch their student to remote learning at any time. But teachers and staff don’t have much of a choice.
Dora Rodriguez, a teacher with a son in high school, told trustees she considered quitting her job to protect people she comes in contact with regularly, such as her sister, but will stay at the district at least through the end of the school year “because I love the kids too much.”
“This is not about the health of people who can survive the virus; it’s about spreading it to our loved ones,” Rodriguez said. “I should really feel confident that my district would keep me safe, but right now I don’t feel confident at all.”
Those in favor of removing the mask mandate thanked board members for giving them the choice. One student and a mother said wearing masks had been a source of anxiety. Some parents repeated debunked conspiracy theories about mask usage and the coronavirus itself. Comal ISD has more than 25,000 students and is one of the fastest-growing school districts in the region. On Thursday, it had 39 active coronavirus cases, according to the district’s website — three fewer than it did when trustees dropped the mask requirement. Comal County had 193 active cases overall Thursday, down from 387 two weeks ago.
Parents and teachers had criticized board actions in August that opened schools for in-person instruction for families that wanted it as early as the first day of the school calendar — weeks before other districts in the area — and again when Drastata called the coronavirus the “China virus” in an email to some parents.
About 15 students opposed to the more lax mask rules protested outside Canyon High School two days after the board vote, calling on trustees to reconsider. They were countered by four students who said they supported the board’s decision.
Ben Toalson, who has six children learning in-person in Comal ISD schools, said Trustee Marty Bartlett on Monday responded to his email to say that the board had no plans to change the decision on mask wearing.
“I feel frustrated and I feel somewhat betrayed,” Toalson said. “We trust the board to make decisions that are in the best interest of our students and our teachers, and I believe they have fallen short of their responsibilities.”