Instead, the Virginia school system is defying the state’s governor and enforcing a pointless universal-masking regime.
Instead, the Virginia school system is defying the state’s governor and enforcing a pointless universal-masking regime.
A t last night’s Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) meeting, school-board members patted themselves on the back for the 99.5 percent student-compliance rate with the public-school system’s mask mandate. Never mind that students who did not comply faced suspension, a pretty significant deterrent for college-bound students concerned about their school transcripts. FCPS decided to interpret “compliance” as “support.”
Fairfax County, Va., school officials want the public to think that all these students love being forced to wear masks eight hours a day, including during gym class, since doubling down on their policy. They did so despite the growing recognition that there is no solid evidence that masking in schools is helpful and could very well cause harm (see, for example, this comprehensive review of available data in the Atlantic). FCPS decided to ignore and legally challenge Governor Glenn Youngkin’s Executive Order No. 2 stating that schools must give all parents the choice of opting out of masking for their children. Apparently FCPS officials like it when students and the community comply with their decrees, but are not interested in complying with a Republican governor’s.
Two of my children were among that small minority of FCPS students who did not comply. On Tuesday, I brought my elementary-school children to school maskless with the intention of exercising my right to opt out. I warned the school the night before that I planned to exercise my right, since I didn’t want to blindside them. I like the people in these schools, and I know that FCPS — not these individual school administrators — is making the rules.
I was surprised, however, that the school had a security guard (which it usually doesn’t) and a FCPS press liaison there to handle parents like me. The security guard approached me as I walked toward the school and made sure I didn’t have anything like a poster board expressing a political opinion in my hands as I walked to school. I’m not sure what would have been so awful if I had, but I didn’t, so I was let through. I was allowed to talk to the vice principal, who was very polite (as was I), while she issued the suspension and told me my kids weren’t allowed in the building for the day. But as I had that conversation, the security guard aggressively sought to keep the one reporter (who lived in the school zone) who had accompanied me from witnessing the exchange. That strategy for keeping the public from seeing this policy in action backfired and in fact became the big story.
Distrust in parents seems to animate FCPS. This disdainful attitude was obvious to anyone who attended the school-board meeting. Those of us constituents who were allowed to speak in opposition to the policy faced a panel of twelve people sitting on a dais, yawning through our two-minute speeches before cutting the mics. They endured us, but didn’t seem to care. And why would they? They are masters of a gigantic and lavishly funded school system where the vast majority of families have no choice but to take whatever educational crumbs they get. It’s why school choice is so desperately needed in Virginia.
I spoke at the school-board meeting not to influence the board, but in the hope that other parents might hear and feel more comfortable speaking out. I’ve heard from hundreds of Virginia parents in the last week who support Governor Youngkin’s opt-out order and only comply with the ongoing rule because they didn’t want their families to become community pariahs. I’ve even heard from teachers who are similarly frustrated with the policy. Parents should feel confident sharing their concerns and challenging the FCPS, knowing they aren’t alone.