CVSD board should take a lesson

Kudos to Texas’ Dallas and Austins schools for keeping their students and staff safe during this more dangerous delta variant by defying Texas’ school mask mandate ban. The CVSD board should do likewise despite the many public comments against masks during Monday’s meeting. School boards make difficult, researched decisions from budget planning to educational policy, and should fact check the data given them on neutral, reliable, and expert resources (like the online “Media Bias Chart”). After all, measurable data governs every aspect of education, from measuring student progress to evaluating teachers.

The school board should remember that in our “flawed democracy,” although almost one-fourth of registered voters just voted, a minority elects the board, which represents a majority: their students and staff. Just as I kept my children safe despite their desires by removing sharp objects, holding their small hands while crossing the street, ensuring they buckle up or wear helmets, so, too, must school boards keep their students safe despite some parents’ desires by listening to multiple experts, like teachers and doctors.

Without common-sense safety pandemic protocols, more two-week quarantines may further disrupt students’ lives. We don’t allow guns, which killed 20,000 Americans last year, in schools. Why allow in COVID, which killed 400,000 last year (now over 600,000)? For decades Asians have publicly worn masks to stop spreading disease; may the CVSD school board not “let go of their children’s hands when crossing that dangerous street.”

Judy Silverstein

Spokane