‘My child, my choice.’ Clovis parents, school leaders protest classroom mask requirement
Echoing the sentiments of many of the dozens of protesters outside Wednesday’s Clovis Unified School Board meeting, board members expressed frustration over the recently announced face-mask requirement in schools.
Board members didn’t say whether they believe students should be required to wear masks, describing it, instead, as an issue of local control.
“I’m not making a statement one way or another, but we need local control,” CUSD Board President Steven Fogg said.
Board Member David DeFrank drafted a resolution expressing a desire for “local control” on several issues, citing mask choice as an example. The board will discuss the resolution at a future meeting.
Many parents outside Wednesday’s meeting also said mask-wearing shouldn’t be required, and local schools should determine their own policies.
“I think that masks should be a choice for the students in Clovis Unified and Fresno Unified,” said Sarah Mejias, a Fresno Unified parent who attended Wednesday’s meeting in Clovis.
Ashley Boone described herself as an “upset parent,” saying she joined the protest because of the emotional toll the pandemic has taken on young people. Drug use and incidents of self-harm among young people climbed after the pandemic closed classrooms and forced widespread isolation last year.
“It’s not letting them be who they are. Imagine your daughter telling you she wants to commit suicide because she has to wear a mask,” Boone said. “She can’t be with her friends. She has to be at a distance. Imagine how that would feel.”
The protest comes just days after Fresno County health and school officials announced the mask-wearing mandate for schools in the fall regardless of vaccination status.
The masking requirement was announced as new coronavirus cases mounted in the central San Joaquin Valley and much of the rest of the country. More than 100 people were hospitalized on Wednesday due to COVID-19 across the Valley, a two-month high.
Two physicians also spoke out during Wednesday’s meeting, asking the district to support the state-mandated mask rules.
Dr. Erica Gastelum and Dr. Gina Laico presented the board with a petition signed by 300 local medical professionals, asking the district to support the state-mandated mask rules.
“We know that masking works. We know that vaccinated people can still get the disease. We also know our community has not received enough vaccinations to have mass immunity,” Gastelum said.
Anti-mask protests have become a fixture of the coronavirus era, with critics arguing the requirement infringes on individual liberties. Public health officials counter that the mandates are based on the evidence that masks protect people, especially those with existing medical conditions that make them more susceptible to COVID-19-related complications.
Fresno County’s Deputy Superintendent Hank Gutierrez previously said the policy falls in line with guidance from the California Department of Public Health. Schools won’t require social distancing.
Mask wearing should mitigate the spread of COVID-19, which is mostly done through airborne droplets, the health department said. Students will be allowed to remove their masks outdoors during recess.
This story was originally published July 22, 2021 at 5:00 AM.