CLEVELAND — As school boards juggle the pandemic and guidance from the Center for Disease Control, community members and parents have voiced their opinions on mask mandates, but school board members said their number one priority is keeping their students and staff safe.
What You Need To Know
- School districts across the state have reported board of education meetings being disrupted by attendees
- Many meeting attendees are protesting mask mandates in schools
- Lakewood Board of Education President Betsy Shaughnessy said she ended a meeting early due to attendee behavior
On Oct. 15, Kaylan Park, 10, spoke at the Cuyahoga Falls Board of Education meeting.
“You guys should know that masks save lives,” she said.
The fifth-grade student was there in support of her school’s mask policy, but was met with pushback from adults. She did not back down.
“Can I please speak?” she said.
She was interrupted several more times before her time was up,
“I felt sad. I also felt proud at the same time,” Park said. “You’re spreading kindness every time you are wearing a mask and kids love that, they love to spread kindness.”
Park’s experience is just one example of outbursts at school board meetings throughout the state.
Lakewood Board of Education President Betsy Shaughnessy said she ended a meeting early due to attendee behavior.
“The behavior has gotten out of hand and it’s the kind of behavior we would never tolerate in our students or ourselves,” Shaughnessy said.
Lakewood currently has a mask mandate.
“Our job is to protect children,” Shaughnessy said. “So if we have to put up with some unpleasantness, we will. And hopefully people will start to get the message that this is not terrible to ask kids and adults to wear masks in a school building.”
Park agreed and wants to see kids and adults who attend school board meetings lead by example.
“Everybody has different opinions,” she said. “I get that, but we have to respect the people who want to speak their opinions.”
