West Ada school board bullied into a (non) decision to (not really) require masks 

West Ada school board members, like so many other public boards during this pandemic, were bullied by a vocal group of angry constituents into making a bad (non) decision Tuesday night.

After a more than five-hour meeting that lasted until close to midnight, and included about 90 minutes of public comment from students, parents, teachers and community members, board members decided that masks are “required,” but no student who doesn’t want to wear a mask, has to wear a mask — their parents can opt them out — which means masks aren’t required.

We’ve said this before and we’ll say it again, these school board members have a thankless and difficult job. They should not even be placed in the position of making these kinds of decisions.

But the state Department of Health and Welfare and Gov. Brad Little won’t make these decisions, so they pass the buck to the public health districts. Well, the public health districts won’t make these decisions, either, passing the buck down to school board members.

While we wish West Ada school board members had stood up to the bullying parents who still don’t seem to understand this virus and pandemic, like Boise school board members did, we understand the unenviable position they’re in.

It’s clear from some of the testimony that many of these parents just don’t believe masks work, with one parent holding up a mask and disparaging it merely as “a piece of paper from Target.” These parents, wearing yellow to show their solidarity and their opposition to public health and common sense, weren’t even wearing masks at the packed meeting.

Someone has to just tell them they’re wrong. Masks work. In fact, there were two medical experts at the meeting telling them masks work, Dr. Jim Souza and Dr. Kenny Bramwell, of St. Luke’s. Why don’t these parents believe them? Do they somehow think Souza and Bramwell are wrong? Do they think they’re lying? Or do they just not care?

This non-decision puts lives at risk. West Ada has 40,000 students. The coronavirus will spread. It will spread among students, to teachers, to staff, to sisters and brothers, to moms and dads. It will spread.

This non-decision will disrupt school. Everyone wants in-person classes. But kiss that goodbye as soon as West Ada gets an outbreak at a school. Wearing a mask is our best shot at not disrupting in-person teaching.

Anti-maskers again showed a faulty understanding of the situation, asking about the number of children in the hospital and child mortality rates. Of course, those are very important, but that’s not the main consideration here. We’re talking about the spread of the coronavirus. We are indeed seeing more children getting sick and going to the hospital, particularly with the delta variant, but the concern also continues to be the spread of the virus, particularly to older folks, who are taking up hospital beds and spots in the ICU.

A better option, as we have said previously, is to at least start the school year safely with a mask requirement, with a firm commitment to revisit the policy in a few weeks.

In fact, that’s exactly what Souza recommended. Unfortunately, he wasted his time by being at the meeting. He should have instead spent the evening with his family.

West Ada isn’t listening to any of the experts.

“We need to ask the schools, what steps have you taken?” Dr. David Pate, retired CEO of St. Luke’s, told the Idaho Statesman in a live Q&A this month. “If they tell you that, ‘Well, we’re focusing’ — like the West Ada superintendent did — ‘well, we’re going to focus on hand washing and cleaning surfaces.’ Well, then, you know, they don’t understand how this virus is transmitted.”

Starting the school year with a mask requirement is particularly wise, as Idaho has a pending hospital crisis.

Without mask requirements in Idaho’s largest school district, it’s even more important to remind folks to get the vaccine. The hospitals are filling up with unvaccinated people. The least people can do, if they’re going to let the virus spread like wildfire through our community, is to get vaccinated and mitigate the impact.

This story was originally published August 25, 2021 at 2:31 PM.