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Paso Robles school board votes to defy the state, no mask mandate

February 22, 2022

By KAREN VELIE

The Paso Robles Joint Unified School District voted 5-2 on Tuesday to defy Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mask mandate for schools, and to allow students to decide if they want to wear a mask at school.

More than a dozen students and parents spoke against the mandate, and for student choice. Multiple speakers chastised teachers who adversely graded students they caught not properly wearing their masks.

Board members and speakers spoke of the hypocrisy of making students, the least vulnerable in the community, wear masks at school while adults are not required to wear masks in most settings.

Only one speaker, a teacher, supported continuing the mask mandate.

Trustees Tim Gearhart and Nathan Williams dissented. Gearhart voiced concerns that defying the governor could open the district up to legal liability, which he said was his only concern. Williams said he supported ending the mask mandate, but he wanted to wait until after Newson speaks on the issue.

The ordinance to defy the state’s mask mandate was effective immediately following the vote.


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Two key facts are missing here: (1) District staff recommended keeping the mask policy through the end of the month until the next Sacramento announcement and (2) The district opened itself up to possible liability were someone to catch COVID and sue. Not sure why the school board could not have waited one more week.


-23

The staff provided 4 options, with number 1 being to stop following the mask mandate. The staff report did not recommend waiting.


There was one woman who was there representing the student senate who wanted to wait until after the governor speaks at the end if the month.


The discussion over liability was that people are already threatening to sue on both sides of the debate.


12

The threat of a lawsuit is a slippery slope. Why not do the same for the seasonal flu, common cold, or any other virus or decease brought in by students, faulty or staff? Be careful about what you wish for.


9

Or just two weeks to flatten the curve…. sound familiar?


9

Wear a mask if you want to. If you don’t want to, don’t. Pretty simple.


73

Um, that’s not an option for schools. Schools get their funding from the state. Right now, the state says students and staff should wear a mask. It’s not your local liquor store.


-71

Um, sure it’s an option. The school board just voted 5-2 in favor of a freedom of choice in the matter. Did you not read the article? The parents and students have the freedom of choice on the mask. It’s not a bad thing. Time to stop the greed for power and control through fear mongering.


40

So, does that mean that the district can unilaterally opt out of things like state approved curriculum and textbooks? Can they rewrite their standards and eliminate books that a majority of the school board don’t like?


-25

Why not? The unions and many of the teachers have already done that in a sense with what they choose to teach in the classroom along with pushing social justice issues and personal agendas in the classroom where it has no place being. Many teachers’ rewrite or distort the history of our nation in class, or don’t recognize the basic standards of reading, writing, and arithmetic in a curriculum. Again, they often choose to teach what they like, and eliminate what they disagree with. So yes, the school board should have that right along with student and parent input in the matter.


8

Sure, that’s right, most teachers in the public schools teach that i always comes before e, you should start a sentence with a lower case letter and 2+2=3.


Cynical, much?


Teachers adhere to a set of standards prescribed for their grade by educational experts—textbooks are part of this—and common core curriculum, which sought to nationalize standards so that students in Texas and California were learning the same things.


Teachers that aren’t teaching the standards should be fired.


You’re just upset that we actually teach the truth in schools these days, that science has proven the reality of evolution. Likewise, climate change is the current consensus among scientists and it is part of the curriculum.


Public schools also teach that there are actually gays and minorities among us who have separate histories which need to be acknowledged.


If you don’t like those realities, then hopefully you sent your kids to private school or homeschooled them.


-12

That’s the problem. The so-called “educational experts” and the failing of the ”nationalized common core curriculum” standards. I guess our meaning of “teaching truth” differ.

I believe in educating, and you believe in indoctrinating. Give the the basics of education in the classroom, while letting them develop their own opinions on social and environmental issues. The last time I checked, everyone has the right to their own thoughts and opinions on things of this world. I know that goes against the “common core” failings, but you have the right to support that failure.


5

Yes, indeed, present the facts about climate change, which is what I believe our schools have been doing. Anyone who actually examines the facts will be well aware that the world has a problem.


70% of adults aged 18 to 34 say they worry about global warming compared to 56% of those aged 55 or older. That makes sense because that age group is closer to high school or college where they would have been exposed to facts.


Of course, you’re not really concerned with teaching facts, if it gets in the way of your 1950’s white bread view of the world.


Your second comment belies your thinking—”if I don’t believe in climate change, then my kid should not learn about it, no matter the facts.”


And, yes, there are separate histories. My history as a white heterosexual male growing up in an upper class family is by all means separate from a poor Mexican immigrant whose family goes off to the fields everyday just to put food on the table, or the young male who finds himself attracted to a male classmate even though he knows it is taboo. I have no idea about those separate histories, and that’s precisely why students should be exposed to them.


-3

Thanks for making my indoctrination point on the 70% of adults from 18-34 believing what’s been forced in their heads the last 40 years.


The facts are, they are indoctrinating. Your comments prove it. You can twist it, deny it, or endorse and promote it like you do but doesn’t change the fact of pushing agendas and narratives on global warming.


I come from an immigrant family of ten. My mother’s family faced hate and prejudices her whole life that spread to our blended family. We never used that as a stumbling block. It motivated us all to rise above the hate. Many of my siblings have had or still have businesses. We were a very poor family that through a great work ethic and opportunities in this nation have made a good life for all of us.


By all means if your upper-class white guilt haunts you for your privileged life, pay reparations to those immigrant families any way you deem fit.


5

With all due respect, I have the right to educate my children anyway I chose. I also have the right to question what they’re being taught.


And by the way, there should be no “separate history,” it’s all part of the history of our nation. To rewrite some parts or not acknowledge it while glorifying and promoting social agenda narratives is wrong. There are pros and cons to all you support, but if others speak to the cons they are demonized. That’s not educating.


6

Actually Schools get their funding from us, the state just facilitates the transfer.


36

There are always options Adam. That’s a big part of the problem for me about the pandemic. True dialogue, real discussion, and genuine compromise need to be brought back into play. This is not a dictatorship.


28

Why are people down voting this? I may or may not agree with the school district but Trask is stating facts not options.


-27

It’s well known that a certain fringe commenter on here runs a script to mass downvote any comment that doesn’t agree with his warped world view. It makes the up and downvote feature a joke that is best ignored.


-2

Other districts in the state are doing the same. I expect the governor to remove the mandate on Tuesday. The Trumpy right will just have to complain about something else.


-91

We are now making our decisions based on how children feel? Good luck.

I have to go ask a fetus for some advice.


-71

Good luck.


-30

Just demonstrating the Board members are are bunch of Cretans, not caring a lick about the health of their students and district personnel. I hope upcoming lawsuits nail the Board members to the wall for a community stoning, which would be in keeping with their deplorable and destructive actions.


-119

So the kids are maskless but the teachers in the same class have to wear a mask. The teacher is the one talking through the mask so kids can hear and learn the lesson. 75,000 people at the Super Bowl shoulder to shoulder no masks,including Newsome and other libs but teachers still have to wear one. This is so insane .


55

Freedom of choice. Right On!


48

If a student or staff member gets severely sick it will be one hell of a lawsuit. If there’s kids or staff that have a compromised immune system there might be a lawsuit filed in that case as well. Because we have elections coming up I don’t think the school mask mandate will be around much longer anyway but they should’ve waited because they have put themselves at a huge risk of liability.


-134

In sue happy California mask mandate or not or to defy mandate or not doesnt matter, people will sue no matter what.


41

Feel free to wear a mask. Nobody will stop you. It should be a decision that is up to the students and parents. If you have health concerns, wear a mask, get vaccinated. If you look at the total case counts in SLO County, we have about a 19% total infection rate, with a 0.85% mortality rate. I’m done dealing with the panic.


87

Masks don’t work near as well as if everybody isn’t wearing one indoors. Fact.People have immunocompromised family members so they just have to stay at home until they die? I wear a mask to protect my family and YOURS. The only lawsuits I’ve seen are people suing to get rid of the mask mandates not the other way around but I am on a far right wing website so didn’t expect much else. .85% mortality rate rate is till one out every 115 people. Great odds if you’re trying to win money not so much if death is the possibility. I had a friend who moved to Nevada last year because he wanted to be “free”. He died Dec 26th in Henderson nv 43 years old from covid.


-79

Masks aren’t effective when they are worn improperly. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve seen with browned, obviously old disposable masks and torn, worn out latex gloves, shopping in stores. That’s not even getting into the sheer number of people wearing them under the nose. It’s doing nothing in those circumstances. These are usually the people making comments or giving dirty looks to the people not wearing masks.

My parents, in their 60s, have both had COVID, I’ve had COVID, my sister, her husband and their children have all had COVID. None of us needed to be hospitalized and we all recovered.

Feel free to get as many shots as you want, and to wear a mask for as long as you want. Nobody is forcing you not to do something. There are a lot of people who look at actual infection rates, which were about 1.5% locally before the Omicron variant. With the surge of Omicron cases, the death rate dropped considerably.


66

You are on a “far right wing website” because CCN allows comments, whereas, the Trib editorial page does not. The Trib has a headline of “You’re wrong, Paso school board. Requiring children to wear masks is not child abuse”, however they don’t even make a case to support why Paso Board was wrong. The Trib shows its total lack of self awareness on a substitution test when it prints “The next time you’re in need of medical care, who will you call? A doctor, or your local school board member?”

I’ll finish the substitution test by adding that no one is going to take medical advice from the Editorial staff at the Trib that can’t even muster the words to support their own “You’re wrong…” headline with substance. They only speculate on some sort of nebulous potential lawsuit where COVID transmission is unlikely to be proven.


18

How exactly are they going to prove where they got sick?…..


74
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