The Alameda Unified School District (AUSD) Board missed a chance to do something bold for our kids. I’ve attended meetings for several months and met some members. Without a doubt, we have intelligent board members who devote their time and clearly care about our children. Sometimes you have to take a stand for something that may be unpopular, or perhaps against an irrational state rule. In this case, the mask mandate.
The state lifted the general indoor mask mandate for vaccinated people, but regulations for schools will be announced at the state level by Feb. 28. Meanwhile, AUSD Superintendent Pasquale Scuderi advised maintaining the more extreme policy of mandatory masking indoors AND outdoors until March 7, at which point outdoor masking would become voluntary. The Board and Superintendent seemed tone deaf to anything other than the official line. Some experts, including several UCSF physicians, petitioned for the end of mask mandates in schools a month ago. Several parents spoke about problems because of masking and made very modest pleas to speed up the liberation. It was not discussed.
The road to the netherworld is paved with good intentions. It seems that the more advanced one’s liberal training, the more rigid one becomes in demanding obedience, whether on climate change, woke-ism, or mask/lock-down rules. What happened to the true liberals?
Hunter Cobb, AC GOP Schools Team - Published in Alameda SUN, 2/20/2022