School leaders: stop 'masking' the real issue

Area school board leaders should stop masking the real COVID-19 issue facing students and families this school year - vaccine hesitancy. This is especially true among Roseville Joint Union High School District Board of Trustee members serving students who became eligible for COVID-19 vaccines in May. Despite just about a third of students in the area fully vaccinated, trustees focused the little time they had this summer in a futile effort to stave off state mask mandates instead of discounting coronavirus misinformation. The district's seven Roseville schools are set to open on Aug. 11. Only 39 percent of those between the ages of 12 and 18 are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in Placer County, said Katie Combs-Prichard, the county's Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson. To placate vocal anti-mask parents, the district's board President Andrew Tagg sent a letter July 1 to California Health Secretary Mark Gahly asking for the state to not reinstate statewide school mask requirements and instead give the decision to local public health officials. Soon after (and despite the letter), state health officials reinstated a statewide mask mandate for all California students despite vaccine status. Last week, the American Academy of Pediatrics released similar mask guidance. This week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials followed suit. District trustee Heidi Hall, who is against mask mandates, penned the letter to the state. Trustee Scott Huber, worried about fake vaccine cards, vehemently supported the letter saying the board is against any future COVID-19 school vaccine validation requirements. "...there's going to be a market for forgeries," Huber said. Superintendent John Becker said the district is not tracking COVID-19 vaccine numbers. "We will ask if there is a close contact or quarantine situation, but it will be up to the individual student or staff member to provide that information to us," Becker said. No doubt the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's incomplete emergency use authorization of COVID-19 vaccines and privacy issues are tying district officials' hands. But locally-elected district board members should move the conversation away from the neverending mask debate and toward valid vaccine information in order to better protect students and staff, and to prevent quarantines. There were 347 reported student cases of COVID-19 in the district last year with 58 staff members testing positive for the virus, resulting in numerous quarantines. Roseville High School even had to shut down for seven days in January after 30 staff reportedly tested positive with COVID-19. According to the CDC, if and when COVID-19 transmission occurs among those under 18, it spreads more easily among high schoolers because of increased adolescent interactions. More vaccinations in this age group would "alter these transmission dynamics," according to the CDC website. High school board members are not alone in grappling with outspoken and oftentimes nonsensical anti-mask parents pleading to end guidelines. Some have threatened to disenroll children if mask mandates continue. Others say they were "heartbroken" while sending their kids to school in masks last year. Parent Nicole Guillama told the Roseville City School District's board July 14 that the government is trying "to control us" through "our" children. "We're not protecting them by putting them in masks. We're protecting everybody else," she said. "And we should be ashamed of ourselves." COVID-19 vaccines are not yet available to kids under the age of 12. It is likely many are also unprotected in a bubble at home because of vaccine-hesitant parents. A mere 49 percent of Placer County residents are fully vaccinated, according to Combs-Prichard. Yvonne Maldonado, a doctor and professor of pediatrics and of epidemiology and population health at Stanford University, said the spread of the disease in elementary schools is low and COVID-19 classroom mitigations such as masks help prevent transmission. Maldonado said between 300 and 600 of the country's children have died from COVID-19. "We don't want to panic people but it is (now) a top cause of death (among children)," Maldonado said, pointing out that "children are supposed to stay alive and healthy." District's defying state health rules, including mask guidelines, could face insurance infractions, Eureka Union School District superintendent Tom Janis said July 12. Eureka district board President Jeffrey Conklin offered a reality check to the anti-mask elementary and middle school parents who had filled the district's small boardroom. "Are they (California health officials) really going to listen to us?" Conklin said, as trustees weighed writing a similar letter to the state's health department. "No." My point exactly. Robyn Eifertsen is a freelance writer covering local education. Contact her at robynmeifertsen@gmail.com.