North Penn
ple don’t know that it’s not just you — it’s everybody that has to wear a mask. If someone’s not wearing a mask, the person who is wearing one is still at risk,” she said.
Karalyn Derstine of Lansdale, also masked, said she felt “public health is not individualistic. So when individuals are advocating for individualistic policies, regarding a global pandemic, all they are doing is advocating for more variances.”
“So when you’re suggesting you want to be maskless, with an unvaccinated population, you’re suggesting you want to develop the North Penn variant of the COVID virus. Wearing a mask, socially distancing, is a minor inconvenience in a global pandemic,” she said.
Crystal Sackel of Lansdale said her daughter was diagnosed with epilepsy last year, during the pandemic, which prompted her to read about health hazards such as higher CO2 levels, stress and anxiety in kids who wear masks long-term, and added that she’s heard from family of employees at other school districts who took their own lives due to mental health problems that worsened during the pandemic.
“Freedom, to me, and freedom according to the Constitution, is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants, without hindrance or restraint. You cannot trample on freedoms of other people, due to your fears,” she said.
“This is America: this is not Cuba, this is not Russia, this is not China. You don’t have to be here if you don’t want to be here. You can leave.”
Emily Spahr of Lansdale said she has worked in a long-term care facility throughout the pandemic, “and you can only imagine what we went through. It was horrific,” before adding that she was “so appreciative and grateful” that the board made her and her children feel safe: “those were not easy decisions to make.”
Beth Staab, currently a supervisor in Montgomery Township, added her thanks for “what you’ve done to keep our kids safe, our teachers safe, our bus drivers safe, keeping our community safe,” but questioned the heated debate.
“We are being fed disinformation: not all of us, some of us. That is being turned into fear, that fear turns into distrust, it turns into hate very quickly. It’s dangerous,” she said. “If we truly believe that our children are what we’re here for, and we want our children to thrive, and our community and our country to thrive, we have to understand that our freedoms are not absolute. If we really believe, and yearn for, liberty and justice for all, we need to stop and think about where this is going, and where it’s come from.”
And Kunbi Rudnick of Lansdale added her thanks for the board’s civil tone and thorough discussions over the past year.
“I can’t say that I agreed with every single decision, but I also knew that I trusted that it came from a position of information, and it was an informed decision. And it was a decision made with diversity of thought — I’m not talking about skin color, just saying that we all have diversity of thought.”
North Penn’s school board next meets at 7 p.m. on Aug. 10 at the district Educational Services Center, 401 E. Hancock St. For more information visit www.NPenn.org.