STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
A special school board meeting slated to determine how to provide a safe return to school amidst the spread of COVID caused by the Delta variant was abruptly called off before it even started Tuesday night when 20 protesters refused to put on masks as asked.
Board President Keith Roark called off the meeting of the Blaine County School Board at 6:02 p.m.—two minutes after it started. And the five board members were escorted out of the Community Campus by security after the protestors, apparently there to protest a possible mask mandate for teachers and students, failed to comply with mask requirements.
The board was expected to approve a mask mandate that would require students and teachers to wear masks in school buildings until Blaine County reaches a lower rate of COVID risk. Currently, the county is considered at high risk for COVID spread.
“If you do not want to put on a mask and you don’t put on a mask, we’re going to adjourn the meeting,” Roark told the audience. “We respect your rights and your opinions, but you have to obey the law just as we do.”
“It was kind of unsettling,” said Trustee Lara Stone. “They were disruptive, yelling things that didn’t make a lot of sense, like, ‘What do you think this is? Germany?’ ”
Stone said having the meeting cancelled was disappointing as board members had spent a lot of hours getting ready for the meeting. Given board members’ busy schedules, it will be difficult to reschedule the meeting before the students return to school on Monday, Aug. 23.
About 159 people had emailed comments concerning mask mandates, and it appeared to be “a big split,” she said.
“(Superintendent) James Foudy said the McCall school district also had a bunch of people show up at their meeting. It seems to be happening everywhere,” she added.
If the school board cannot meet to consider the mask mandate before school starts, it will likely revert to last year’s policy, which requires students to wear masks, Stone said.
“All this is so disappointing because we really need to be focused on the students,” she added.