School boards and their ‘crimes’

A spate of nearly identical petitions filed by taxpayers in the Court of Common Pleas seek to remove sitting members of at least three Chester County school boards for a litany of monstrosities: child abuse, battery, suffocation, practicing medicine without a license, illegal medical experimentation, and violating constitutional rights, all on a massive scale.

The crime? Implementing school mask policies.

(Worth noting: While these districts have all moved to mask-optional policies, when masks were mandatory, exemptions were available for students that needed them.)

The fact that these petitions were filed in quick succession and that they repeat each other almost verbatim reveals a tightly coordinated effort. Over the last two years, small activist groups have been attacking school boards, administrators, and teachers using shared talking points and manufactured outrage that would suggest a vast, monolithic bloc of voters. However, these activists actually only represent a small, well-organized fraction of the population.

At the outset, this movement was ostensibly about ending remote learning. The activists often cited the disproportional impact it was having on underserved students. In an ironic twist, once remote learning ended, these activist groups shifted focus to attacking data-driven school equity programs that are designed to support those same underserved students.

The new 40+-page, cut-andpasted legal petitions accuse board members of abuse for requiring masks, and supporting documents in one of the petitions goes so far as to suggest that teachers and staff, as mandated reporters, are not only complicit but also guilty of what amounts to a seconddegree misdemeanor (or possibly a felony) for not reporting this “abuse.”

Child abuse is a serious crime, but these legal filings only offer the appearance of taking it seriously. As with many other issues taken up by these activists, the invocation of child abuse is simply a convenient tool for attempting to intimidate local officials into capitulating to their demands. They come right out and say so: One of the petitioners includes an email where they lean on their school board, writing, “Please do not place us in a position to file a suit. It is a waste of tax-payer dollars.”

If the petitioners truly believe that tens of thousands of students have been abused, then how can they believe that pursuing justice for those children is a waste of money?

Second, why are public schools the only target and not private and parochial schools, most of whom had identical “abusive” mask policies in place? Finally, these groups often argue that they are not anti-mask, saying instead that they favor parent choice about masks, but certainly they would not advocate for parents choosing to abuse their children.

If the court allows these petitions to stand on merit, or worse, determines that requiring masks meets the definition of abuse, it would follow that teachers and administrators are also guilty of crimes that could effectively result in mass dismissals. Since almost every school in Pennsylvania had mask requirements, this means that there would be almost no one left to educate our kids.

The teachers will be in good company, though, as every bus driver, every after-school coach, every piano teacher, every daycare provider, every baby sitter, every scout troop leader, every Sunday School teacher, every nurse, every doctor, every police officer, every judge, and every parent — all of whom are mandated reporters — who saw children wearing masks and did not report it as abuse will also be guilty.

The outrageous nature of these complaints is by design. It ensures space in traditional and social media. Each loud haranguing of a school board is intended to chip away at the public’s confidence in public schools.

While I can only speculate as to what the ultimate objective of these activists is, what is clear is that this concerted effort is having a real impact on public schools. Faculty, staff, and board members — already stretched thin by razor fine budgets, crowded buildings, and a pandemic — are facing siege-strategy politics with the result that many are leaving their posts.

If communities fail to work together to prevent these acts of well-poisoning, we will face a steep challenge convincing highly qualified people to serve as educators and board members.

Will Wood