Regarding Ms. Castillo (We must put the safety of our students and faculty first, Sept. 2), she and I agree. The last 18 months have been a test in stamina, leadership, and strength. I also agree that when the pandemic started, the board experienced unity. I also agree that as a School Board, and as a community, there is no question that we must put the safety of our students and faculty first.
However, board member Castillo and I disagree on who the enemy is, how to combat the enemy, and the ammunition to be used. For me, the enemy is not the teachers, parents, and children who want to opt out of masks. It’s not the administrators, teachers and staff who do not want to be vaccinated. For me the enemy is the actual disease.
Cloth masks, upon which I have read a considerable number of studies, are not a singular cure to our problem. In fact, rushing to impose mask mandates, or any mandate for that matter, without a proper foundational and thorough discussion is not only failing to protect, but potentially harming our educational community.
I’ve said it on the dais, sloppy policy leads to sloppy results. Establishing a mask mandate for which there is tremendous support for and against just because our friends and neighbors to the north have done it is not leadership, it’s convenience.
Maybe sloppy policy is acceptable when you know very little about a disease and you’re reacting however you can. But it’s not acceptable a year later when we know much more and when studies have both rejected and supported masks, and the actual danger the disease poses is more well known.
The School District is failing to properly build trust with our community unless we put politics aside and begin to speak to one another frankly, honestly, and with a little more profundity. We will have failed to lead and have instead dictated. That leads to chaos.
I can’t speak for Ms. Castillo, but I for one am not comfortable doing that to the community, not for the benefit of masks. The School Board has lacked a willingness to look at our circumstances holistically. School Board decisions are complex and deserve deeper consideration, not knee-jerk reactions.
For example, there is a proven cost to wearing masks. A German study published by the American Medical Association recently found that the carbon dioxide levels in some masks was three to six times beyond the acceptable limit causing problems in 60 percent of children. That’s worth consideration, right? A month later the paper was retracted without note, but the science was never disputed. Here’s science even a simpleton like me can dispute: Just trust me, I’m smarter than you.
Apparently that’s what the medical doctor we invited to speak Aug. 30 thought we should do. I’m sure that doctor is the smartest person in the room wherever he goes, but he couldn’t seem to answer any of the questions important to the families there. But he did imply that parents who did what he said love their kids more than those who did not.
That’s not how you build trust with the community. That’s not how you lead. And you certainly don’t build trust picking and choosing when you obey the mandate and when you don’t.
The epidemic we’re suffering from isn’t COVID-19, and it won’t be controlled by masks. It’s our inability to trust our leaders’ ability to communicate honestly, think clearly, and most importantly, think critically.
Jon Arguello is the district 3 member of the Osceola County School Board.
