Wednesday, July 22, 2020

The OC Board of Education, playing games

OC Board of Education Releases Previously Silenced Comments on Starting School Without Masks

Voice of OC

     Orange County’s Board of Education approved recommendations last week calling for a return to schools without masks or social distancing before giving any kind of voice to nearly 4,000 submitted comments from the community.  

. . .

     Public speakers at the meeting – which was streamed live on Zoom and YouTube – were widely supportive of the board’s plan.

     Many viewers watching the public meeting wondered what had happened to all the comments that poured in. Voice of OC immediately filed a public records request to review the comments.

     On Tuesday, OC Board of Education officials complied….

     The board’s original report called for a return to school without the use of masks or social distancing in classrooms, directly contradicting the county’s own department of education and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

     Even some of the experts that were listed as consultants on the report came out against it, saying they never saw a draft of what was released to the public. 

     At the meeting, only 21 speakers were allowed in, and 18 were supportive of the Board’s plan, with many thanking them for their reliance on “the actual science.” 

     “This is not an at risk population, and they are not going to bring this disease home to grandma and kill grandma. There is no reason to make any changes to what we are doing,” said the first speaker on the dais.  

     One of the other commenters allowed to speak was Dr. Jeff Barke, husband of Mari Barke, the board’s vice president. Barke has been an outspoken opponent against masks and social distancing and is opening a new charter school this year. Their relationship was not disclosed from the dais. 

. . .

     The first batch of 50 comments released by the OC Board of Education [Tuesday] tell a very different story than what public commenters shared at the meeting. 

. . .

     Only four of those emails supported the Board’s decision, and only one of the commenters said they currently had children in an Orange County public school. That commenter also identified themselves as an emergency room nurse at a local hospital.  

. . .

     The rest of the emails sent were overwhelmingly against the Board of Education’s plan, and came from a variety of teachers, parents and community members who did not identify in their emails whether or not they were involved in public schools. 

. . .

     The Board of Education released the remainder of the 4,259 emails to Voice of OC on Tuesday afternoon, and they are currently under review by staff.

     “You are supposed to have the best interest of our students in mind when you make decisions. Use science, not politics when making those decisions,” one commenter wrote. “Thank you for considering my comments.” 

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OC Reg

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