The last eighteen months have been a test in stamina, leadership, and strength. Last March, at the start of the pandemic, we experienced relative unity on how to mitigate the harmful effects of COVID-19. As a school board, and as community, there was no question that we must put the safety of our students and faculty first. Back then, the transmission rate based on pool testing in our schools was less than 1 percent.
However, according to the CDC, the Delta variant “spreads more easily than previous variants, and it may cause more than two times as many infections.” Therefore, the CDC continues to recommend that we use masks as an added layer to protection to reduce the transmission of the variant.
During Monday’s emergency meeting, the board decided to keep our current mask policy. While I had hoped for a different outcome, I am proud that as a board we were able to have a respectful discourse.
I have been open to conversation and contra points from all members of our community as I find that one must listen to all points of an argument before forming an opinion. One must also carefully listen to experts whose knowledge is invaluable. I have to follow my conscience by respecting the evidence. And I cannot ignore or distort the data before me. Last week, the school district closed a school due to the high levels of infection and exposure of the Delta variant. While we have experienced this in the past, this time children were among those infected, not simply exposed to the virus. As the scientific community works to determine how to eradicate the extreme effects of the virus, we must help them by making it difficult for it to infect our society.
Few of us have encountered a crisis of this magnitude. We have read about such trying times in books, or watched TV dramatizations. Yet living the experience has been more taxing than one could have imagined; I can sympathize with the need to create a narrative that controls the situation. Unfortunately, we do not have control. At this moment, the best defense we have against further physical, mental and social damage is to listen to science.
As school board members, we are the voice of the community on the dais. Our role is to act in the best interest of as many people as possible. I have done the work. I have respectfully listened, argued, and contemplated. A mask mandate in our schools protects our friends and family — full stop.
When I tell my greatgrandchildren about the Covid-19 pandemic in fifty years, I will let them know that it was difficult and divisive. I will say to them that I was guided by my sense of duty to protect our community. I also hope to tell them how the people of Osceola fought the other viruses that plagued us: mistrust, lack of empathy, and isolation.
Terry Castillo is the district 1 Osceola County School Board member.
