- April 18, 2024
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Send letters to [email protected]. Include first and last name, as well as city of residence.
Dear Editor:
I was one of maybe five people wearing a mask at the School Board meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 17. Unsurprisingly, I was met with harassment and hostility. At the beginning of the meeting, the virtual public comments were read. Almost all of them were from people who chose not to physically attend the meeting due to other commitments or not wanting to be exposed to COVID-19 or the hostility its critics so clearly brought.
Over the next 90 minutes, in-person public comments were made, mostly in opposition of mask-wearing, quarantining or both. Unlike previous meetings where public commenters were escorted away by police for breaking meeting rules, these anti-maskers continued to cheer and applaud after each comment they agreed with, and jeer after each one they did not, despite warnings from officials.
This happened six or seven times before Attorney Kristy Gavin finally decided to evacuate the chambers. While the majority of anti-maskers were ignoring police officers and others' requests to exit the chambers, I waited out in the lobby for order to be restored. During this time, a loud woman and an older-looking man approached me with a large sign that read “You keep your mask and I’ll keep my freedom.” They both repeatedly yelled at me and another mask-wearing person to stay home (obviously misunderstanding that most people cannot choose to stay home during a deadly pandemic because their livelihood depends on leaving their homes). Then, the man proceeded to purposefully cough on me, which is a form of assault.
After a few coughs, I turned to a nearby police officer and asked him to ask the man to stop coughing on me. He rolled his eyes at me, turned to the coughing anti-masker, and gave him a very unconvincing “stop” in a monotone voice before walking away. It was then that I realized just how hostile this environment was.
Despite this, I was determined to stay so that I could deliver my second public comment after School Board member Colleen Conklin was unsuccessful in her motion to mandate masks.
After delivering my second public comment, a woman pointed her finger at me and loudly whispered, “Shame on you,” as I walked away.
At the end of the meeting, School Board member Jill Woolbright implied that people who are in favor of masks are in the minority, calling us “keyboard warriors'' because we didn't show up to this meeting. But it’s no wonder I was only one of five people in attendance in favor of masks. Would you voluntarily attend a meeting where grown adults scream threats into microphones, blatantly ignore law enforcement officers' requests, and assault mask-wearers with forced coughs?
Will I attend the next one? Absolutely. And I encourage anyone who is able to join me in the fight to do what’s right for the public health and safety in our schools.
Courtney VandeBunte
Palm Coast
Editor's Note: Courtney VandeBunte is a candidate for Flagler County School Board, District 2.
Dear Editor:
The hot topic of the Aug. 17 Flagler School Board meeting was mandated versus optional mask-wearing in schools. It was my first viewing of a board meeting and maybe my last. It was little more than an unruly freak show. So much so that the Sheriff’s Office had to clear the room of rowdy hardcore anti-maskers.
Steve Allen wrote a book many years ago, "Dumbth: The Lost Art Of Thinking.” It has turned out to be prophetic. The dumbing down of America was in full bloom in the audience and on the board.
It was actually scary to experience the bizarre mindsets and wild claims of the parade of speakers so adamant to discard science, facts and even common sense, and then realize that they actually walk among us in our community.
And it was even scarier that three of the board members were unwilling to support a mask mandate, apparently following the lead of the board's grand poobah of pseudo-science and misinformation, Janet McDonald, and recklessly voted down mask-mandates. The board, an entity tasked with providing fact-based learning to our students and are guardians of their safety and health, failed big time on both counts.
Robert Gordon
Palm Coast
Dear Editor:
Parents, find out what’s happening in your child’s school. Please start going to School Board workshops and meetings. Find out when/where at www.flaglerschools.com. At the Aug. 17 School Board meeting, some parents’ emails were read, stating that they wanted masks, but many parents/grandparents in attendance voiced their support for no mask wearing at school. It was among the largest audiences in years.
School Board member Colleen Conklin tried to get a mandatory resolution for students to wear masks, even though Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an order that gave parents a choice concerning mask wearing.
This is not an issue of science, as kids do not spread the virus readily to other kids or to adults. (See Editor’s Note below.)
In March 2020, Dr. Anthony Fauci stated that “masks are not as effective as you may think.” That’s the science. (See Editor’s Note below.)
Masks cause positive harm to children by impeding breathing; they cause headaches, dizziness, anxiety, reduced ability to concentrate and they lead to reduced cognitive function. Science says a mask works for only 20 minutes due to saturation. It then becomes ineffective and the dangers to your child are increased. Parents, consider mask wearing carefully. Look into multiple sources for the truth! (See Editor’s Note below.)
Other issues come up at board meetings, such as, parents' rights, allowing transgender students to choose their bathroom according to what gender they identify with that day. How is that policy monitored? Pay attention to what your child is being taught. Check their homework. Does it fit your family values? Does it teach pride in America? Does it teach brotherly love among all races or does it build on racial divide which encourages racial tensions. Please get involved!
Patty Quick
Palm Coast
Editor’s Note: Based on a study in Pediatrics, published in July 2020, scientists concluded at the time that children “are far less important drivers” of transmission of the coronavirus than adults. However, based on further research published in August 2021 in JAMA Pediatrics, scientists concluded that, in fact, children are even more likely than adults to spread COVID.
Similarly, Fauci was skeptical of masks in March 2020, but as more data became available, he changed his recommendations, as did the Centers for Disease Control; now, both recommend masks.
As far as the wearing of masks, the positive effects of limiting the spread of coronavirus outweigh any possible negative effects, according to the American Lung Association, the CDC, the American Medical Association and many other medical organizations.
Dear Editor:
Citizens of Flagler County are abuzz with commentary, summations and solutions after the Aug. 17 School Board meeting. Our Sheriff's Office served us well, very well.
A volcanic eruption of fear and anger created such chaos at the meeting that, if the deputies were not so familiar with many of the parties involved, the completion of our local School Board meeting may have instead ended in an abrupt state of public shame, and which none of us would have felt completely untouched. Bitterness, understandably so, has called for resignations, firings and lawsuits.
Clearly a sense of powerlessness flows like lava.
However, thanks to the Sheriff’s Office, the School Board meeting was completed. Attendance to School Board meetings across our nation, most recently, have ignited a previously "under-attended" landscape. Feelings of "desperate times call for desperate measures" and "that's my kid" appears to vibrate within our American heart and soul.
Hopefully, in the final analysis, the kids will be able to look up to the adults with respect; well-earned on this “battlefield" of daily living in these turbulent times.
Chanel Channing
Palm Coast
Dear Editor:
I was at the Flagler County School Board meeting on Aug. 17. I will say that I am unapologetically God-loving and an American patriot. Being these two things has caused many to call me white-supremacist, racist, homophobic, domestic terrorist; these are all laughable to anyone who knows me! And that is the core of the shameful behavior I witnessed at the recent School Board meeting.
I have been at School Board workshops/meetings where some of the board members have described parents’ concerns as “hysteria.”
What I witnessed was much different from what is being said by liberals. The meeting was well attended. There were numerous parents and grandparents commenting on mask mandates in our public schools because they care about their children! Unfortunately, many choose not to do the research but only believe all the left-leaning media reports. (See Editor's Note below.)
Probably the comments that hit the School Board hard were from parents of a 12-year-old boy who had been removed from his class and put in a quarantine room until his mother picked him up. It was not until two days later that the parents got a call from the health department with not much solid information only that their son may have been exposed to COVID by someone who may have COVID and then tried for several minutes to "sell them" on getting their son vaccinated.
He is now out of school for eight days because of not getting vaccinated! He’s a child! The father of this student spoke after his wife and just let them know it was not OK to come after his children in such a way; he then asked each School Board member for an apology. They all stared at him (those who would even look at him) and said nothing.
Yes, that angered him, and he raised his voice like most parents who care about their children should do. This was considered threatening behavior.
If these School Board members, who were voted on to serve the people, cannot answer hard questions about what is going on in these schools and cannot take criticism, then they are sitting in the wrong seats, and we need to ensure that is changed.
One parent spoke about a speaker they had at Flagler Palm Coast High School in a welcome rally for incoming ninth graders the first day of school. That speaker was talking about equity and, according to what the parent heard, told the students it was OK to be transgender; the majority of parents are not OK with that being discussed with their children in school.
Again, the board seemed to not know anything about said speaker. Shameful!
For the School Board attorney to take over the meeting and tell everyone to leave and then call for police/sheriff back-up was unnecessary. There were no threats by anyone; again, just some very concerned parents and grandparents. There were 12 police/sheriff cars out front; what a waste of taxpayer money!
We, as American people, need to wake up and see/understand what is being done to our country right before our very eyes by some very evil people! People should do themselves a favor and speak to folks who are in this country now after escaping a socialist/communist country.
Kathy Robison
Palm Coast
Editor's Note: For a science-based perspective on the pandemic, visit www.cdc.gov.
