Board meeting abruptly finishes

Trustees end session after only 20 minutes when public speaker refuses to wear a face covering

The Redlands Unified School District board ended its Tuesday meeting 20 minutes in after a public speaker, who had said he would make the mask debate “personal” for a trustee, refusing to follow rules and put on a face covering.

Patty Holohan, president of the board of education, made it clear at the beginning of the meeting that if members of the public could not follow the rules, the meeting would go virtual. Recent school board meetings have been marked by heated debate over the district’s requirement that students wear masks in classrooms, a widespread practice supported by public health officials to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

The meeting Tuesday was called to order in person at Citrus Valley High School and also broadcast on the internet by the district. From the video feed, it appears about two dozen members of the public were in the audience.

Holohan noted at the outset that state public meeting laws would be enforced and read sections of the state penal code that deem it unlawful to obstruct business.

“Officers from the Redlands Police Department are on hand to keep the peace, ensure the rights of everyone in attendance and to enforce the law,” she told the audience. “If people disregard the rules, it will force the school board to revert to a virtual platform for its board meeting.”

Holohan noted the community’s passion on some topics.

“It is our hope that everybody respects each other and follows the rules as they and others share their viewpoints,” she said at the beginning of the meeting.

As with the past few meetings, the district posted on its website that state guidelines require face coverings at indoor meetings if students are present.

At least two students were present Tuesday night, and they spoke against the mask mandate.

Holohan read the names of 100 members of the public who wrote in to the board, though she did not say on what topics they had written.

Five members of the public spoke before the sixth and final speaker, Jared Gustafson, said after speaking out against mask rules that he no longer would wear one at the meeting.

“I’m letting you know that if you move this platform to a virtual environment, we are prepared to go to (address omitted). Mr. Vara, I’m sure you are familiar with that,” Gustafson said to trustee Alex Vara, “and to many other addresses to make our point very crystal clear, because you’ve made this personal to our children in our community, it’s time for us to make this equally personal to anyone that does not stand on the rights of a sovereign individual.”

Gustafson did not say why he singled out Vara.

Holohan gave Gustafson several warnings to put on a mask or be escorted out. In the audio from the live feed, Gustafson can be heard saying he would not do so.

At that point, trustees voted to adjourn the meeting and to reconvene at 5 p.m. today.

Virtual meetings can be watched at livestream. com/redlandsusd/boardmeeting.

Holohan, Vara, Gustafson and district spokeswoman MaryRone Shell did not immediately return requests for comment.

There were no arrests, nor citations issued at Tuesday’s meeting, according to Police Department spokesman Carl Baker.

At the previous school board meeting in August, about 50 members of the public spoke both for and against mask mandates in a heated session that included yelling and heckling from the audience. At that meeting the board unanimously approved a coronavirus school safety plan that includes a requirement that students wear a mask indoors.

At a meeting in July, police were called out when about 40-50 members of the public gathered outside and some aggressively banged on windows and doors because they would not be let in without a mask, according to the district. That meeting resumed two hours later after some members of the crowd donned masks to come in and speak.

The district has recently added a COVID-19 dashboard to its website that tracks the number of coronavirus cases among students and staff at each campus over a two-week period.

Since Sept. 1, there have been 69 new confirmed cases at district sites, the dashboard showed late Wednesday. The campus with the most confirmed cases in that two-week period is Citrus Valley High School with eight.

The dashboard can be found at redlandsusd.net/ Page/18775.