Free speech should be cherished, not abused

I firmly believe that the Palm Beach County School Board’s COVID-19 mask policy is consistent with the law and our obligations under the Florida Constitution. As school board members, we have a constitutional duty to provide safe schools and a statutory duty to protect the welfare of our students. Given the threat that the virus poses to children and their families, we believe that we are acting in the best interests of our students and that our policy is necessary to fulfill our duty to keep our students safe.

Providing a safe learning environment for all students is a compelling interest for the school board and the state of Florida as a whole. The school board has a moral and legal obligation to protect the health, safety and welfare of our students.

A face-covering policy was adopted out of necessity in response to the dramatic and rapid spread of COVID-19 as a result of the delta variant.

While the great majority of parents have expressed their desire for children to wear masks on school district property, a small but vocal minority is taking extreme measures in an attempt to compel us to end the mask mandate before COVID numbers decrease and the metrics the district has established are met and the masks will again be optional.

One only needs to watch our board meetings to witness the callous disregard for dignity and civility. My colleagues on the board have indicated they have been threatened. I too have been threatened, and my receipt of the most vile emails and phone calls imaginable are now commonplace. People hide behind their keyboards to proudly and cowardly dispatch disgusting viciousness.

The conduct of individuals at our board meetings is just a microcosm of the country as a whole. Rude and vicious behavior has somehow become acceptable as an exercise of one’s “freedom of speech” — a freedom which should be cherished, not abused. The disrespect shown at our board meetings by many of the speakers is an embarrassment to our community and an acknowledgment that civility is dying.

At a recent board meeting, a 7-year-old girl stood next to her mother and proudly announced that the Palm Beach County School Superintendent “sucks” — and the room cheered her on! In what world should a person encourage such disrespect as acceptable behavior for anyone, let alone one’s own child?

What are we teaching our children? What lessons are they learning from adults treating one another so poorly? Children live what they learn. To paraphrase St. Paul the Apostle, “we will reap what we sow,” and I’m afraid what will be reaped is a generation of adults who lack the values that made this country the greatest nation on earth.

BIZUAYEHU TESFAYE/AP In this Aug. 12 file photo, protesters against a COVID-19 mandate gesture as they are escorted out of the Clark County School Board meeting at the Clark County Government Center, in Las Vegas. A growing number of school board members across the U.S. are resigning or questioning their willingness to serve as meetings have devolved into shouting contests over contentious issues, including masks in schools.

Frank A. Barbieri, Jr.