O'FALLON, Mo. — Indecision became a decision Monday when Fort Zumwalt school board members unexpectedly and narrowly voted to keep its current mask-optional plan in place for the start of the school year. It will revisit the issue at its next board meeting, on September 20, around three weeks into the start of the new semester.
The board didn't have a vote scheduled on Monday night's agenda but amended it on the fly to include a vote about revisiting the current mask plan after hearing from 13 passionate citizens about why the district should or should not mandate masks. The room became so crowded that at one point, Superintendent Bernard DuBray asked people to stop pulling chairs from stacks to add seating to the socially distanced space. Someone from the crowd then asked if the school board should have moved the meeting to a gymnasium, to which DuBray said no.
Many people lined up and stood against the back wall and outside in the hallway.
At least three women who said they were nurses spoke in front of the board. Two were for masks, and one woman was not.
At least two others who identified as teachers said they did not want to mandate masks because of how they affected their kids' psychological health.
One man said he just left the Rockwood School District and moved to Fort Zumwalt specifically for its mask-optional plan.
Moms with kids who have health risks begged the school district to consider children who are vulnerable and asked them to consider children who cannot be vaccinated.
"I'm very concerned you're taking away one of the tools that we have to keep children safe," said April Rivera, a mom with two students in the district. "My kids aren't old enough to get vaccinated. If they were, I'd do that."
Rivera is part of a growing group on Facebook called St. Charles County Parents in Support of Masks. The group recently launched and has exploded in growth as schools get closer to their start dates. Parents monitor what school districts are doing and help each other be heard at their school boards.
Other people - some not Fort Zumwalt district residents - took the opportunity to share what they thought was wrong with the whole system in general -- from Black Lives Matter to gender identity to not learning cursive writing.
The CDC, American Academy of Pediatrics, Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, and St. Charles Health Department all recommend wearing masks indoors, for ages 2 and up, regardless of vaccination status.
But different facts mean different things to different people.
The only student who spoke does not attend school in the district but said he would earn a Boy Scout merit badge for attending. He said he wanted to say something, so he wrote a speech in the car on the drive over from dinner.
"Making friends with a mask on is not easy," proclaimed Milo. "Just imagine trying to make a friend without being able to see what their face looks like. Last year I made a couple of friends but not too many outside of school because I couldn't see what anyone else, that I was around, looked like."
On the argument of staying mask-optional, people said kids need to be able to see expression and be engaged with their peers and teachers for mental health. Others, like the school board president, said it shouldn't be the district's responsibility to make decisions for the health of children – that to which, the vice president of the board said it was.
View the whole exchange here
School Board President Mike Swaringim said he wanted to read in part an email he received because he "tended to agree wholeheartedly" with what the gentleman said. Swaringim said, "But to the comments that are being made that we're responsible for these kids--we're responsible for their education."
A large part of the crowd interrupted with applause.
"[If] They're in class all day long, seven hours a day with masks we mandated-- we've overreached our government authority," said Swaringim.
More interruptions with applause. Swaringim thanked the crowd for agreeing with him, but he said he wanted to finish his thoughts.
"Once you do that, these kids are going to go home, they're gonna play video games with Johnny down the street, they're going to be coming in contact with who knows what," Swaringim continued. "We need to learn how to live with COVID instead of trying to live around it. This gentleman writes, 'The freedom to make decisions on medical precautions while in consultation with one's own personal doctor needs to be protected. Offering medical advice to individuals regardless of medical history, location, risk profile, or any other background information is not appropriate.' Quite frankly, I don't want that responsibility. And that's why I'm going to go for mask optional."
Many people in the crowd cheered, but the board's vice president clapped back, calling Swaringim's way of thinking "absolutely bass-ackward".
"We have vaccines that we require for kids to come into our school," said vice president Erica Powers. "So, that's absolutely bass-ackward [ass backward] in how we're saying things. Because if we're telling parents, 'Your child can't come into school unless you prove these medical records to us--"
Someone in the crowd hissed.
Powers stopped briefly, saying she wasn't going to talk over people. A few of her words became inaudible.
"We provide curriculum that they have to follow," Powers continued. "We have a dress code that they have to follow. We provide security of what goes on, and we have a responsibility as the board of the education we are required to keep them safe. And we do all of these things, so for one thing to just pull out to be different, and say we can't do that, then where does it stop? Because we do this every single day." Powers mentioned tornado and intruder drills as part of plans to keep kids safe.
She also stressed that masks helped kids stay in school last year. She said she did not want to see thousands of kids in quarantine for several days and back in virtual learning settings, like many endured during the last school year.
She along with Gabriel Helms, and Tommy George were the three members who voted for a mask mandate.
"I am definitely in favor of a mask mandate," said Gabriel Helms. "I know no matter what decision we make here tonight as a board, I think it's inevitable that we're going to have a lot of pissed off people."
"We did so much good last year with masks, so I think we should continue with them," said board member Tommy George. He went on to share a story about his father had to go to the hospital earlier that day and no spots were available. He said he had to wait more than 5 hours with the same 30 people in the room before "tagging out with this brother" to come to the board meeting. He overheard 12 people in the waiting room who needed chest x-rays, which to him signaled COVID testing. He also said there were at least six small children "coughing and hacking".
"The cherry on the sundae would be to start the year with masks mandatory since we had done so well last year with them," George continued. "With the masks, I think we would be doing so much better. And reason--you have to protect the lowest in terms of health of your students. The healthiest are going to be fine, but they may transmit it to the weakest. I was sick as a kid a lot so I know a lot about having sickness -- allergies and asthma-- damn near died of pneumonia one year, but for some reason, I was spared. So I just think we should start with the masks."
Others in favor of mandating masks said public schools should follow public health guidelines.
St. Charles County has never had a mask requirement, despite the health department's latest recommendations. The health department came up with another board member, Thomas Emmons, who said he did not feel confident with how the county health department had handled COVID-19.
"The health department data has not been something that I have been real impressed by over the last 18 months," said Emmons. "The dashboard they have, I don't know if we trust it or not, quite frankly."
He along with board members John Callahan and Craig Moore voted to stay mask-optional.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Tuesday Emmons moved out of state two months ago to Florida, putting his eligibility as a board member in question and making the 4-3 vote even more controversial among parents.
"One of my daughters was asked to draw a picture of her friends," said Emmons. "Guys, she drew a group of faceless people. That's gonna leave a mark. Fact is, kids aren't as resilient. We want to tell ourselves that they are."
Emmons said it's clear the mental health toll has affected students, whereas no students or staff had been lost to COVID-19, to his knowledge. He also asked for more data and surveys from teachers and staff in hopes of finding out if mitigation strategies even worked or had been standardized. The superintendent said he did not know if hand sanitizing or social distancing had any impact and that data had not been collected.
There were a few things everyone could agree on -- they were proud of the way the district handled COVID during the previous year, which included in part, mandating masks. And ultimately, everyone had the kids' best interests at heart.
Across St. Charles County, masks are optional at Wentzville schools. The school board will meet this Wednesday to discuss possible changes. Francis Howell has a mask mandate for students in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade. Masks are encouraged for those in grades seven and up, and masks are optional outdoors. The Francis Howell school board has a meeting this Thursday and will likely discuss potential changes to the plan.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to include additional context to comments made by board members and the public. We changed how we characterized School Board President Mike Swaringim's comments to provide more clarity. We regret any confusion. We have removed a public Facebook post made by Thomas Emmons that included photos of his children.