View the public comment portion of the 8/5/21 D158 School Board Committee of the Whole Meeting below.
(Note that our group typically does not attend the COTW meetings, but based on the volume of parents who spoke against masks and testing at the previous school board meeting on 7/22/21, board members were encouraging pro-mask viewpoints to attend and speak at this meeting.)
The first five parents to speak shared time at the opening of public comments to read a joint statement from the D158 Parent Union regarding COVID response, masks, and quarantines.
This meeting took place 13 days prior to the 2021-2022 first day of school, one day after Governor Pritzker mandated masks for back-to-school.
3:15 – Quarantines legally cannot be implemented without a court order or consent. Mandate does not even specify what kind of mask should be worn. Under the governor’s mandate, a mesh mask qualifies.
3:18 – Our Parent Union has presented many questions which remain unanswered. If masks are a “medical product,” legally, they should be treated as biohazardous waste. If you believe the pandemic is deadly, virally-contaminated masks are medical waste that cannot be discarded in the trash.
3:21 – Parent Union will further our effort to fight for voluntary COVID protocols. The CDC has been consistently inconsistent for the past 18 months. They said COVID spread on surfaces, was airborne, and spread asymptomatically. They told people not to mask, then to mask, then to wear two masks.
3:24 – There are three kinds of people in the world: Leaders, leaners, and followers. We are asking you to lead. Other states are leading and have lifted mask mandates for schools while providing N95s for those that want them. We are extremely disappointed to learn that $20,000 was spent on Critical Race Theory training called “White Fragility” instead of working on COVID response. We will be holding this board accountable for the actions they have taken.
3:26 – You promised to debate these issues tonight publicly. You are the board of education, not the board of health. We want to see expert data behind the decisions you’re making. At what point will our board stand up and fight for us? How far are you going to let this go before you say “enough is enough?”
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3:31 – Internet safety for Chromebooks without safety stickers. LIGHT district issues: How can the district spend millions on a new coffee bar at the high school, but the LIGHT program students are being shuttled to Marlowe, where grown adults in special education will be sharing a building with middle schoolers?
3:35 – Mother discussing son’s entry into LIGHT program. District has $700,000 worth of COVID funds but does not have money to move post-high-school LIGHT students into their own facility.
3:39 – Man states 600,000 people have died from COVID, he knows someone who has died, and that masks are needed to protect as many lives as possible. He says more deadly variants are coming and to follow the science. “Today I’ve heard some of the most dangerous misinformation of all time.”
3:42 – Father does not want mask-wearing imposed without considering the risks of wearing them all day. “Death” is not considered a metric for the current masking policies. He cites a study that 4X Co2 builds up inside masks in just 9 minutes. There are no peer-reviewed studies saying that prolonged mask wearing is healthy and safe. Parents are against vaccine centers in school. Asks the board to have a town hall with parents.