2021-08-30 - School Board Meeting

0:00 Definitely feel responsible for the child, the person,

0:03 and then the academics on top of that.

0:06 - We have so many things here at the school.

0:08 We have great academics.

0:09 We have all these amazing art programs.

0:11 We have amazing culinary program.

0:13 We have an amazing auto program.

0:14 We have a CNA 911 program that there is really something

0:18 for every interest of every child at our school.

0:22 And it makes it feel like a family instead of just

0:24 where you come to do something you have to do.

0:28 - We have an actual community.

0:29 It’s not just a school.

0:30 It’s not just an institution.

0:31 It is a community in which people are willing

0:33 to help each other, the students and their enthusiasm

0:37 and their gusto for learning is unparalleled.

0:40 The academics here are tremendous as well as the caring

0:43 of the faculty and the teachers we have here.

0:47 - I love all the teachers here.

0:48 They’re awesome.

0:49 They make the day better, honestly.

0:51 Like half of the school is the atmosphere that is given

0:53 by the teachers and staff and administrators.

0:56 And you can tell that they really care about their students.

0:58 It’s really fun to have people that are passionate

1:00 about the school and want to participate.

1:02 And it’s really good to have the whole school spirit

1:04 at the level that we do.

1:06 - Inclusion is super important to us

1:08 at Titusville High School.

1:09 Everyone’s really friendly and like you can really talk

1:12 to anybody and everyone’s here to help you.

1:15 I’m proud of the atmosphere.

1:16 I’m proud of like the things we get to do.

1:18 It’s a good environment, especially for you to join clubs

1:21 and be involved in the school.

1:23 You’ll have a good time.

1:24 (upbeat music)

1:37 - I think one of the most common misconceptions

1:40 about a virtual school is that a student sits

1:43 behind a computer, doesn’t talk to other human beings.

1:46 The computer is there and that’s the vehicle,

1:48 but it’s the vehicle for engaging with teachers

1:50 and with their peers.

1:51 We still have an amazing culture here at Brevard Virtual.

1:55 We’re all local.

1:56 We’re here in Brevard and that allows us

1:59 to do those face-to-face activities.

2:01 Brevard Virtual is a great opportunity for parents

2:03 to be able to have their kids with more flexibility.

2:05 I have a travel nurse parent and so she’s traveling

2:08 and the daughter can travel with her,

2:10 but she can still be getting her education

2:12 and it’s more opportunities for them to be able

2:14 to participate as a family and have flexibility.

2:17 Did you go on a field trip with her on the computer?

2:20 - Yes.

2:21 - Where did you go?

2:22 Remember where you saw lots of animals?

2:24 - Yeah, I saw a zoo.

2:26 - It was the zoo.

2:27 I don’t remember where it was either.

2:28 - It was the Australia Zoo.

2:32 - Well, we started with BVS at a rough time in our lives

2:36 when my oldest daughter was diagnosed with cancer.

2:39 And I pulled my son Khaleef from brick and mortar

2:42 because I spent a lot of time

2:43 at Nemours Children’s Hospital.

2:45 He was a very, very timid child,

2:48 but Khaleef was inducted

2:49 into the National Junior Honor Society,

2:51 as well as the National Honor Society

2:54 when he started BVS.

2:56 He was so quiet and now outside of our community,

2:59 he is an activist for pediatric cancer.

3:03 - I like to call students just to say they’re doing great.

3:07 And that’s part of the monthly context.

3:09 So when we call the parent or email the parent,

3:12 we’re letting them know, not just the bad things,

3:15 we’re letting them know, hey, they’re doing great.

3:17 And so it’s just a way that we build the community

3:21 even further with parents as partners with our teachers.

3:25 (upbeat music)

3:34 - At Westside, we are a family.

3:36 Every single day that my students come to school,

3:38 they want to be here.

3:39 They feel safe.

3:40 They’re in an environment where they’re having fun

3:42 and they can respect each other.

3:44 We make sure that all individual needs are met.

3:46 - We have educated generations of families

3:50 here within our school community.

3:52 Our school focuses on high academic expectations.

3:55 We have standards-based instruction, writing programs,

3:59 gifted programs, and supports for our struggling readers.

4:02 But in addition to that,

4:03 we have a variety of enrichment programs

4:05 to build the whole child.

4:07 We have a very strong music program

4:09 that involves orchestra and chorus

4:11 and the only steel drum band here in Brevard County.

4:14 In our athletics, we have one of the largest running clubs,

4:17 our elite running club that places multiple times

4:21 in local races.

4:22 We also have STEM and science.

4:25 And then we build good character traits

4:27 in our kindness club and our happy hand sign language clubs

4:30 so students are becoming aware of inclusive children.

4:34 We develop a community in our school

4:36 where students are feeling loved so that it’s okay to fail

4:40 and they feel that confidence and that belief

4:42 that the staff has for them.

4:43 - Westside has a wonderful school family.

4:46 We are able to implement a lot of different strategies

4:48 with how diverse our population is here

4:51 and being able to allow students to learn about one another

4:55 and interact with one another,

4:56 regardless of their differences.

4:58 - Everyone is so respectful here

5:00 and that you can always be yourself here

5:03 and the teachers are so welcoming

5:05 and that they’ll help you with their grades

5:07 and they’ll make sure you’re doing okay.

5:10 - Everyone at school is very caring

5:13 and that even though we’re different,

5:15 everyone feels the same.

5:17 It’s very easy to make friends here.

5:29 - Brevard County is a community on the move

5:32 as one of the fastest growing counties in the state.

5:35 With increased business opportunities,

5:37 a booming tourism industry,

5:39 and a key role in the return to space,

5:41 living in Brevard County means being where the action is

5:45 and in the middle of that action is Brevard Public Schools.

5:50 Brevard Public Schools is a community leader

5:54 actively working to shape young lives

5:56 into individuals capable of making real world impact.

6:01 Accessibility is of high importance

6:04 and as such, 84 schools are offered throughout the county,

6:08 spanning from Mims to Palm Bay.

6:11 Proud to be an A district with a 90% graduation rate

6:15 Brevard ensures students have every opportunity to succeed.

6:19 This can be seen in the 414 graduates

6:23 who earned their associate’s degree

6:24 while still in high school

6:26 and the 47% of graduates who earned certificates

6:29 in STEM and CTE courses.

6:34 Further showcasing national leadership

6:36 in career and technical education,

6:39 Brevard students dominate in science

6:41 with seven high schools ranked as America’s best

6:45 for STEM.

6:46 For those students interested in other areas of study,

6:49 our schools offer 82 different industry certifications,

6:54 a unique aviation assembly and fabrication program,

6:57 a top notch robotics program,

6:59 and a maritime program that uses technology

7:02 only found in one Florida high school

7:05 right here in Brevard.

7:07 All of our CTE programs prepare students

7:10 for college and the workforce,

7:12 whether in automotive tech, 911 public safety or culinary,

7:16 these programs strengthen the future of our children

7:19 and Brevard County.

7:21 Not just available to high school students,

7:23 CTE programs are in middle school

7:26 and yes, elementary schools too.

7:29 When it comes to academics,

7:31 our students shine using a robust AP program,

7:34 dual enrollment, Cambridge program,

7:36 international baccalaureate program

7:38 and national honor society.

7:41 If you want the best educators in Florida,

7:44 they’re inside Brevard classrooms.

7:46 Experienced, energized teachers and staff

7:49 are leading our kids from kindergarten to graduation.

7:53 At Brevard Public Schools, the sky is not the limit.

7:57 We aim for beyond.

7:59 (upbeat music)

8:16 - Apollo Elementary was built in 1966,

8:18 right in the middle of the Apollo program,

8:20 which brought the astronauts to the moon.

8:22 This school has a special place in Titusville

8:25 because of that, and I think it’s important for us

8:28 to continue our relationship with Kennedy Space Center

8:31 and the space program.

8:33 The best thing about the school,

8:34 it’s an environment where students are nurtured,

8:37 where they are engaged in learning,

8:39 nurtured, where they are given what they need,

8:42 become global citizens,

8:43 where everybody works together collaboratively

8:46 so that they can be successful.

8:48 - My favorite thing about Apollo

8:50 is just the culture that it promotes.

8:53 The teachers are kind and they work together

8:55 and the students respond well to them.

8:58 - When you have everybody working together,

9:00 it just makes a stronger school.

9:02 Just being such a tight-knit community,

9:04 we really wanna work with those kids

9:07 that maybe are struggling in an area.

9:09 We work a lot with the kids

9:10 that maybe are excelling academically.

9:13 We have a lot of programs.

9:14 We will make sure that every child is taken care of,

9:17 no matter what the need is.

9:19 They know no matter what when they go home

9:21 that they’re loved,

9:22 and we just want to see Apollo continue to succeed.

9:26 - It is really easy at Apollo to make friends,

9:30 and I got lots of great friends here.

9:33 I really love how the teachers helped me

9:35 here at Apollo Elementary.

9:38 I actually want to be an astrophysicist when I grow up

9:41 because of all the space-type things we do here at Apollo.

9:45 We actually have a moon tree.

9:47 There are seeds that they took to space

9:50 and took them back,

9:50 and one of them is actually planted

9:52 right in front of the school.

9:54 It’s really great to walk through the school

9:56 knowing that this school has a part of history

10:00 that we’ll forever live on in our lives.

10:09 (upbeat music)

10:12 - My favorite thing about Astronaut High School

10:14 are the students.

10:15 The students make everything that we do worthwhile.

10:18 I think the most unique aspect about our school

10:21 is that we serve a diverse population.

10:27 We have outstanding, experienced educators

10:30 who really put the students first

10:32 and celebrate our ability to serve our students

10:34 here at Astronaut High.

10:36 - My favorite thing about Astronaut High School

10:37 is the community.

10:38 The culture is about every student being successful.

10:41 From the moment you step in here, it’s a different feeling.

10:44 There is no other school like Astronaut High School.

10:47 We are just here to support our students,

10:49 support our community, because we are a family.

10:51 There is something for everyone here at Astronaut.

10:54 From accelerated academic programs like our AP Academy

10:57 to our career and technical programs,

10:59 such as welding, construction, and nursing,

11:02 we have great opportunities for all of our students.

11:05 - We have a group of teachers who feel like Astronaut High

11:08 School is home.

11:10 They’re truly invested in the students

11:12 and they want to see them succeed.

11:14 The connection between our administration,

11:16 it’s what makes the school work

11:18 and it’s what makes this such a special place.

11:21 - I feel like everyone’s really involved here

11:23 and it’s a really positive environment.

11:25 Everyone here is like a family.

11:27 Everyone’s here to support you and make sure

11:30 that you succeed in everything that you do.

11:33 - My favorite thing about Astronaut High is just

11:35 the experience and the friendships I have here

11:38 at the school and the relationships I build here.

11:41 There’s many things that you can do here

11:42 at Astronaut High School

11:43 and they give you so many opportunities.

11:44 The teachers really do care about your future.

11:46 Astronaut just gives me that home feeling.

11:49 - If I could describe Astronaut High School in one word,

11:51 it would be passion.

11:53 - Family.

11:53 - Community.

11:54 - Excellence.

11:55 - Learning.

11:56 - Special.

11:57 - It would definitely be pride.

11:58 (upbeat music)

12:03 (air whooshing)

12:07 (upbeat music)

12:09 - Upon arriving to this campus,

12:11 they’re gonna arrive to an atmosphere of caring faculty.

12:14 Teachers are energetic about what they do.

12:16 Their passion is undeniable.

12:18 Their reputation is undeniable throughout the county

12:20 and not just throughout the county,

12:21 throughout the state of Florida.

12:25 - Whether the student has ambition to go to Harvard or Yale

12:29 or to be a machinist at the Cape

12:32 or one of our local industries,

12:34 those opportunities exist

12:36 and they’re well-rounded for any student,

12:39 whether it’s in the classroom, the athletic department,

12:42 our clubs and activities, our JROTC program,

12:45 which is a very popular program here

12:46 at Bayside High School.

12:48 Even our BLAST program,

12:49 which is students that have graduated

12:52 but have decided to continue on in their education,

12:54 they have real world experience in transitioning

12:57 from school to independent living.

13:00 I can’t say enough wonderful things

13:03 about the CTE department

13:04 and all of the variety of courses we offer

13:06 from machining to culinary, TV productions, drafting.

13:10 Not only do we have world-class instructors,

13:13 but we have world-class equipment.

13:14 There are a lot of academic opportunities here

13:17 for kids at Bayside High School.

13:18 The dual enrollment program

13:19 and the early admissions program

13:20 is where students can enroll in Eastern Florida classes.

13:23 And if they complete the program,

13:24 they can graduate with their AA degree

13:26 and their high school diploma.

13:27 We have a wide variety of AP courses here

13:30 that they can take on campus and earn college credit for.

13:33 There’s something for everyone.

13:36 The staff definitely does care about us here.

13:38 I feel like they tailor us in a certain way

13:40 so that we all feel comfortable learning certain things

13:43 ‘cause not everyone’s the same.

13:44 They really try to make it beneficial

13:46 and comfortable for everyone.

13:47 At Bayside High School, I always feel like staff

13:49 and faculty are putting an extra step forward

13:51 when it comes to their student success.

13:54 They’re very easy to reach out to

13:55 and will always help you with anything academic related

13:58 and non-academic related.

13:59 The people you’ll meet here are just wonderful

14:02 and they’re super easy to get along with.

14:03 Community is just fantastic.

14:14 (upbeat music)

14:18 - In Heritage High School,

14:19 you can find a lot of different cultures, diversity,

14:24 and everybody respect each other.

14:26 It’s kind of like a really, really big family.

14:31 - We have very successful students

14:33 that are striving for excellence in many different ways.

14:36 We have Cambridge programs, we have dual enrollment,

14:40 we have CTE programs, automotive programs,

14:43 the Academy of Environmental Water and Technology

14:46 have a very strong athletic program.

14:48 And then of course we have the best band in the business

14:51 and our performing arts programs are very good also.

14:54 So all types of opportunities here at Heritage High School

14:57 for a well-rounded student that enjoys the performing arts,

15:00 that enjoys athletics,

15:02 but also has college and career in the back of their mind.

15:05 - My favorite thing honestly has to be

15:06 our Cambridge program.

15:07 The kids have a chance of earning college credit

15:10 while they’re right here on campus with us.

15:12 If the students earn their Cambridge diploma

15:13 and also get a hundred hours of community service,

15:15 they qualify for Bright Futures,

15:17 which will pay for their college

15:18 for up to a four year degree plus a book stipend.

15:21 Our kids, they get along, our teachers, they love them.

15:23 And we hear this back and forth from the kids.

15:26 We have visitors that come onto campus

15:27 and they make comment about how pleasant

15:29 our kids are to interact with.

15:31 We are inclusive, we are robust

15:34 and your kids will feel welcome here.

15:37 - I feel like the staff here really does care

15:40 about the student’s success and just their wellbeing.

15:43 We have great teachers here

15:45 to get you prepared for the exams.

15:48 - Here at Heritage you can do everything at once.

15:50 I can manage TV productions,

15:51 live stream all the football games

15:53 and earn my Cambridge diploma at the same time.

15:56 I love being a student here

15:57 because it’s so easy to meet new people.

15:59 People aren’t segregated into their groups

16:01 of band kids or athletes or this or that.

16:04 Everybody mixes together.

16:05 So you can really make a lot of different friends at once.

16:18 - Imperial’s a fun place to be.

16:20 The school is family and that’s what my classroom is.

16:24 You as a parent become part of the family.

16:26 You work close with the teachers.

16:28 The teachers know each student.

16:30 I have third graders that come to my door

16:31 to wave at me and tell me good morning.

16:33 So it’s just a family atmosphere.

16:37 - Your child’s coming to a school

16:40 that they’re going to feel the love.

16:42 They’re going to feel that we care about them

16:44 and their growth.

16:46 We have a lot of teachers and staff members

16:49 that put in the extra effort and time

16:52 to get to know our kids and work with our kids.

16:55 You come here because we do have quality educators

16:59 and we thrive ourselves on getting better

17:02 and doing our best with our students

17:04 in the classroom and outside of it.

17:09 - We have some great programs, the robotics program.

17:11 We have wonderful computerized programs

17:13 where we’re dealing with technologies

17:15 and we have a great art program

17:17 where students can stay after school

17:19 and work on their creativity.

17:21 The students are able to help each other out.

17:23 They’ve got a lot of spark.

17:25 - Everyone’s helpful and friendly.

17:28 And if you don’t know something,

17:30 if you just ask someone, they’ll lead you the right way.

17:33 You can be yourself and no one will make fun of you.

17:36 - This is a special school that is always wondrous

17:40 to come to in the morning.

17:42 They’re really special because these teachers,

17:45 they’ve taught you for years and they know you.

17:48 They know your family.

17:50 They know all of you, basically.

18:02 - We have the greatest kids, we have the greatest teachers,

18:04 and we have an outstanding community.

18:06 We believe in every child’s ability to learn

18:08 and we believe it’s our responsibility as educators

18:11 to create access for them, to access the educational world

18:14 and have the success that they deserve.

18:19 - We are an AVID school.

18:20 We’re one of the few AVID elementaries,

18:22 one of only two here in Brevard schools.

18:24 And AVID, I believe, really helps create the purpose

18:27 for why students come to school.

18:28 It helps them understand what elementary school

18:31 is going to do for them in the future.

18:33 We have a lot of great programs like our drone teams,

18:36 our sea perch teams.

18:37 We have STEM clubs and STEAM clubs.

18:39 We have orchestra.

18:40 They’ve been growing vegetables in the garden.

18:42 They’re learning and exploring.

18:44 And I have no doubt that we’re cultivating

18:47 the next generation of thinkers, innovators, and creators.

18:49 And I’m very excited for what our kids are doing.

18:52 - At Palm Bay Elementary, we have quite a few programs

18:55 that are unique.

18:56 We’re a Special Olympics Unified Champion School.

18:58 So we’re super proud

18:59 of our large exceptional education program.

19:02 Part of that is our gifted student program.

19:04 Our kids are super involved

19:06 in lots of different academic competitions

19:08 and different community events.

19:10 So we have a lot of opportunities

19:12 for kids outside the classroom

19:14 to participate in authentic learning.

19:17 - Palm Bay Elementary is a special place

19:19 to work and learn and grow

19:21 because of our sense of community

19:23 and our commitment to our students.

19:25 We give them the platform

19:28 to practice their leadership skills.

19:31 - At Palm Bay Elementary,

19:32 the teachers make you feel really welcoming

19:33 and comfortable here.

19:35 It feels like family.

19:36 The first day you came here,

19:38 it feels like you’re automatically just a part of it.

19:41 - What’s awesome about Palm Bay Elementary

19:43 is where they always have something new every year

19:45 or a month.

19:46 And they offer new clubs

19:48 or more hands-on activities.

19:50 And I also like that you can make a lot of new friends

19:52 in this school

19:53 and have opportunities to learn new things in this school.

20:03 (upbeat music)

20:06 - We have really grown

20:07 and really been able to offer

20:09 some very unique learning opportunities for students.

20:12 I fully believe that the school

20:14 is one of the best kept secrets

20:16 in South Brevard.

20:17 We have anything and everything you can imagine

20:19 and you’re not gonna find much like this in the district.

20:23 - We’re the only magnet high school in Brevard County

20:26 where our focus is STEAM.

20:27 We have so many opportunities within that.

20:30 Not only the rigorous courses

20:31 such as dual enrollment and AP and honors,

20:34 we have a Pirate to Panther program

20:36 where you can take college courses at FIT

20:39 while you’re in high school.

20:41 It’s complimentary to our students.

20:43 AVID stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination.

20:47 We provide leadership and community service opportunities.

20:50 We have an AVID Tutoring Center.

20:52 Students volunteer during their lunch

20:54 to help all students on campus.

20:56 So everybody gets support.

20:58 We all have one goal in mind

21:00 and that’s for our students to succeed.

21:02 - Palme Magnet High School

21:03 is an emotionally safe environment.

21:05 Its diversity is its strength.

21:08 And when I say diversity,

21:09 I don’t just mean cultural or linguistic diversity.

21:12 We have a wide range of academic abilities.

21:15 We have a wide range of programs to meet every student

21:18 at every level that they come to us.

21:20 And we have such knowledgeable faculty,

21:23 but they’re not just knowledgeable.

21:25 They’re really genuinely caring

21:27 and they want to meet the students where they are

21:29 and work to make them come up to where we need them to be

21:33 and to where they need themselves to be.

21:36 - It’s been amazing.

21:37 I’ve seen aspects both from in the classroom and in sports.

21:41 We all support one another.

21:43 The coaches are great.

21:44 They’re gonna push you to be your best on and off the court.

21:46 Our teammates are gonna push each other.

21:48 We know our strengths and weaknesses

21:50 and we continue to strive for the better for all of us

21:52 and not just individually.

21:54 - One of the things you notice

21:55 if you talk to any of the adults on campus

21:57 is how much they genuinely care for the students here.

22:00 The goal of Palm Bay High is for everyone to feel included.

22:03 (upbeat music)

26:12 (gavel bangs)

26:14 - Good morning.

26:14 The board has called this emergency meeting.

26:17 Can you guys hear me?

26:18 - No, come on.

26:19 - Yeah.

26:22 - Try this one.

26:24 Good morning.

26:25 Can you hear me now?

26:26 Okay.

26:27 Good morning.

26:28 The board has called this emergency meeting

26:30 in order to address the extremely high number

26:31 of COVID cases and quarantine within Brevard Public Schools.

26:35 The only issue on the meeting this morning

26:36 is a face mask covering requirement.

26:39 For those joining us in the audience this morning,

26:41 I want to advise you of a few things.

26:43 First, if you must leave the building for any reason,

26:46 you will not be permitted to reenter.

26:48 Your seat will be given to the next person waiting to enter.

26:51 Additionally, the only topic for public comment this morning

26:54 is on the face masks and face coverings.

26:56 You will have a one minute time limit.

27:00 The board is authorized to adopt rules or policies

27:03 to maintain orderly conduct or proper decorum

27:06 in a public meeting.

27:07 And your opportunity to be heard is subject

27:09 to those rules and policies.

27:12 Outside of your individual public comment opportunity,

27:15 your role in the meeting is as an observer.

27:18 Pursuant to Florida Statute 877.13,

27:22 it is unlawful and a misdemeanor of the second degree,

27:25 punishable by up to 60 days jail and a $500 fine

27:29 for any person knowingly to disrupt or interfere

27:33 with the lawful administration or functions

27:35 of any educational institution or school board.

27:38 Or knowingly to advise counsel or instruct any school pupil

27:43 or school employee to disrupt any school

27:45 or school board function or activity

27:48 on school board property.

27:51 I will ask persons deemed to be knowingly

27:53 or intentionally disrupting this meeting

27:54 of the Brevard Public School Board to stop or leave.

27:58 If persons receiving the warning

27:59 do not follow my instructions,

28:00 I will instruct Brevard County Sheriff’s deputies

28:03 to take any law enforcement action

28:05 they deem appropriate and you may be escorted,

28:08 detained or arrested depending on the conduct.

28:11 Persons who refuse to depart after a warning

28:13 may also be committing the crime of trespassing,

28:16 contrary to Florida Statute Section 810.09.

28:20 These statutes apply to conduct on all school board property

28:23 which includes this boardroom as well as the outside

28:26 of this building to the sidewalks.

28:30 In the event multiple individuals fail to adhere

28:32 to these expectations and board business cannot continue

28:35 due to disruption, I will call a recess

28:37 and request that the law enforcement officers present

28:40 clear the boardroom of attendees.

28:42 When the room is cleared, the board will return

28:44 and resume their meeting with no public presence.

28:47 Those who are signed up to speak will be seated

28:49 under the front entry area and called in

28:51 when it is your time to speak.

28:53 If you continue to cause a disruption,

28:55 you are in violation of Florida State Statute 877.13.

29:00 Or if you fail to leave the premises

29:02 after being warned by the Sheriff’s office,

29:04 you are committing trespass and the board

29:06 has authorized the Sheriff’s office to enforce these rules.

29:10 Ms. Escobar, roll call, please.

29:16 - Mrs. Belford. - Present.

29:18 - Ms. McDougall. - Present.

29:19 - Mrs. Jenkins. - Present.

29:21 - Mr. Susan. - Present.

29:23 - And Mrs. Campbell. - Present.

29:25 - Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

29:33 - I pledge allegiance to the flag

29:35 of the United States of America

29:38 and to the republic for which it stands,

29:41 one nation under God, indivisible,

29:44 with liberty and justice for all.

29:55 - All right, we are now at the adoption of the agenda.

29:57 As stated earlier, the emergency meeting has been called

30:00 on an emergency face covering requirement.

30:02 Can I get a motion?

30:04 - Move to approve. - Second.

30:05 - Moved by Ms. Jenkins, seconded by Ms. McDougall.

30:07 Is there any discussion?

30:09 Please vote on the adoption of the agenda.

30:29 All right.

30:32 (indistinct)

31:07 The motion passes five, zero.

31:11 Did it go four to one?

31:12 - Yeah. - Sorry.

31:16 The motion passes four to one, I apologize.

31:21 All right, we are now at public comments.

31:23 Persons signed up to address the topic of face masks

31:25 and face coverings.

31:26 We’ll have one minute in which to make comments.

31:29 I will stop persons addressing other topics

31:31 and you will forfeit any remaining time.

31:33 Always keep in mind that reasonable decorum

31:35 is expected at all times

31:36 and your statement should be directed to the board chairman.

31:39 The chairman may interrupt, warn or terminate

31:41 a participant’s statement when time is up,

31:44 personally directed, abusive, obscene or irrelevant.

31:48 Should an individual not observe proper etiquette,

31:50 the chairman may request the individual leave the meeting.

31:52 Let’s all encourage an environment appropriate

31:54 for our children who may be present or watching from home.

31:58 I will call speakers in groups of three.

32:00 When your name is called, please line up on the east wall

32:02 to save time.

32:03 Let’s begin with the first three speakers.

32:06 Thomas Jefferson, David Kerns and Maggie Kyle.

32:15 140.

32:30 (muffled speaking)

32:35 Okay, so if I call the three,

32:37 they can come in when I call those three, right?

32:39 - Yes. - Okay, sure.

32:50 Whenever you’re ready, sir.

32:52 - My name is Thomas Jefferson,

32:54 the founder of the Patriot Party Bombard.

32:57 Let me start by saying that we, the Patriots Bombard,

33:00 will not enforce any mandates on our patriotic children.

33:03 Let me also say that you, the communist dictators

33:07 that sit on this school board,

33:08 will not ever mandate health and education decisions

33:12 for our patriot children, never, ever again.

33:15 Remember one thing, a mandate is not law.

33:19 However, what is law is HB 241.

33:22 It gives all the parents the right to decide

33:25 if they want to master kids or not master kids.

33:28 Patriots of the Bombard say no masks.

33:31 Listen to me.

33:33 I say to any and all school board members

33:36 that vote yes on this mandate, you’re fired.

33:40 I’ll say that again.

33:41 Any and all school board members

33:43 that vote yes on this mandate, you’re fired.

33:47 When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes booty.

33:51 - Thank you, sir.

33:52 (audience applauding)

33:54 Audience members.

33:57 I’m going to ask that you please hold your applause

34:01 and response to the speakers.

34:02 We have 142 speakers scheduled this morning,

34:06 and we would like to make sure that we have an opportunity

34:08 to hear all of them.

34:09 So if you all would please just hold your applause

34:12 and responses to the speakers so we can move through,

34:14 that would be great.

34:15 Mr. Kearns, whenever you’re ready, sir.

34:20 - That’s the first responder, my wife, who is a nurse,

34:23 and she is up to her elbows in people with COVID right now.

34:27 She says the following.

34:28 Kids are too young to get vaccinated, 11 and so forth,

34:31 need to be protected by a mass mandate.

34:34 Those older than 11 should get vaccinated.

34:37 Nobody wants to see kids in freezer trucks.

34:41 They’ve already had children being evacuated

34:43 by a helicopter to Orlando because we do not have

34:46 a pediatric intensive care unit here in Brevard.

34:50 She tells me what it’s like to administer chest drains

34:52 to someone while covered in scrubs, covered in phlegm,

34:56 covered in blood, okay?

34:58 And none of these horrors are just gone in a day.

35:03 They’re long lasting.

35:04 She does not want to add those horrors to those horrors,

35:08 those of the visions of children dying

35:10 in the emergency room.

35:12 Now, I’m not gonna be nice in this last one,

35:15 that it takes an order of a judge to have–

35:18 - Thank you, Mr. Kearns.

35:18 We appreciate you joining us this morning.

35:21 Unfortunately, your time is up, Mr. Kearns.

35:24 Unfortunately, your time is up.

35:25 Please step back from the mic.

35:27 Thank you for joining us.

35:30 All right, Maggie, as Maggie’s approaching after Maggie,

35:33 we have Julie Kellgren, Jonathan Schuman, and Asia Hosey.

35:45 Whenever you are ready, Maggie.

35:47 - Okay, there is a new pandemic sweep in the country,

35:50 and it’s not COVID.

35:52 It is mask mouth.

35:55 It’s a play on meth mouth.

35:57 It is spreading like wildfires,

35:59 and dentists are warning that it could have

36:01 serious consequences, including death.

36:05 Gum disease, periodical disease,

36:07 will eventually lead to strokes

36:09 and an increase of heart attack.

36:11 Warns Mark Saldani, a dentist and co-founder

36:15 of One Manhattan Dental.

36:17 Wearing a mask on a regular basis

36:19 is causing many to experience severe mouth inflammation,

36:23 the complications of which can be extremely severe.

36:26 We’re seeing inflammation in people’s gums

36:28 that have been healthy forever.

36:29 Cavities in people who have never had them before.

36:33 One Manhattan Dental co-founder.

36:36 According to Romani, roughly half of his patients

36:38 are suffering from health problems due to masks.

36:41 About 50% of the patients being impacted by this,

36:44 so we decided to name it mask mouth after meth mouth.

36:48 - Thank you, Maggie.

36:49 We appreciate you joining us this morning.

36:50 (audience applauding)

37:03 - Witnessed my five-year-old daughter’s mask wet

37:04 from sucking on it.

37:06 I have seen her come home without a mask,

37:07 someone else’s mask.

37:09 I have seen other kids unmasked.

37:10 I have seen another child put dirt, sticks, and grass

37:13 in their expensive pediatric N95 mask

37:16 while their parent was here protesting

37:18 against parental choice.

37:20 Ironic, huh?

37:21 The European CDC does not require it for children under 12.

37:24 Other schools don’t require a mask,

37:25 and their COVID rates are comparable.

37:27 My degree is in molecular microbiology,

37:28 not that it matters at this point.

37:30 We are all developing a psychosis

37:32 that involves a false sense of security,

37:33 wearing a mask that doesn’t work,

37:36 because kids are gross.

37:38 This has nothing to do with who is president.

37:40 I personally know people from all sides of the aisle

37:42 who are pro-choice.

37:44 Be reasonable and make better personal choices.

37:47 - Thanks, Julie.

37:48 (audience cheers and applauds)

37:53 - Jonathan.

37:57 - Hi, I’m Jonathan Shuman,

37:58 retired Brevard County science teacher.

38:00 While we debate masking,

38:02 over 3,000 new cases affecting our students

38:04 have been reported since August 2nd,

38:06 and 4,000 students recently quarantined.

38:09 As teachers, we teach more than our subject areas

38:12 of interest.

38:12 In addition to teaching bioscience,

38:14 we taught social responsibility and accountability.

38:18 In the way of social studies,

38:19 we taught through the class adoption of class rules

38:21 and the concept of mutual respect

38:24 that the needs of the group

38:25 outweigh the needs of the individual.

38:27 So coughing and sneezing in the direction of another student

38:29 is not tolerated.

38:31 The fire is here now,

38:32 burning through our community

38:33 in the form of a second generation virus.

38:36 The ways we can slow down its ability to mutate

38:39 are limited to masking correctly,

38:40 social distancing, vaccinating, and washing hands.

38:45 The next generation of the virus may be more unstoppable.

38:48 The board must provide administrators, teachers, and staff

38:51 the tools through COVID policies of 2020

38:55 to lessen transmission of the virus.

38:57 Any less will be a crime

38:58 because of you. - Thank you, Jonathan.

38:59 We appreciate you joining us this morning.

39:03 After Aisha, we have Pamela Castellana,

39:05 Kathleen Marler, and Ricky Marler.

39:09 Whenever you’re ready, Aisha.

39:11 - Thank you so much for having me here today.

39:14 My name is Aisha Hosey.

39:15 I’ve spoke to you before.

39:17 The facts have been presented,

39:18 so we don’t need the facts anymore.

39:21 We know that our enemy today is not other parents.

39:26 It’s COVID.

39:27 What can we do to protect our children against COVID?

39:31 We have listened to the CDC.

39:33 We have listened to the American Pediatric Academy.

39:36 They have said masking help.

39:38 It is time for us today.

39:41 This is the defining moment

39:44 for all of you on this committee,

39:46 all of you on the school board.

39:48 Today, you decide what’s gonna happen in our community.

39:52 Are we gonna have more deaths?

39:54 Are we gonna have more huge quarantine numbers?

39:58 What are you going to decide today?

40:01 Please vote for Babar

40:03 because it’s our entire community that is being hurt.

40:08 If we do not have safe schools,

40:11 we do not have a safe community.

40:13 Thank you, Aisha, we appreciate you joining us this morning.

40:16 (audience applauding)

40:18 Pamela Castellano.

40:34 - We all know that the courts have now struck down

40:36 the governor’s executive order as unconstitutional

40:38 and unlawful overreach.

40:41 I expect that Randy Fine’s threats

40:43 will also be struck down similarly.

40:46 I represent the 136,000 registered Democrats

40:48 in Brevard County, the 25,000 in District 1,

40:51 the 26,000 in District 2, the 28,000 in District 3,

40:55 the 27,000 in District 4, and the 31,000 in District 5.

41:00 I represent all of those Democrats in Brevard County.

41:02 We ask that you ignore the empty and illegal threats

41:06 from Representative Fine

41:07 and issue a mask mandate for our public schools.

41:10 Thank you.

41:11 - Thank you.

41:12 (audience applauding)

41:14 Kathleen Marler, and as Kathleen is approaching,

41:17 I just wanna remind the audience

41:18 that I’ve asked you all to allow us to focus on the speaker.

41:22 So I shouldn’t be hearing you commenting

41:24 to the comments that they are making

41:25 during their one minute of public comment.

41:27 If I continue to heal from repeated individuals,

41:30 I will ask you to leave, okay?

41:33 When you’re ready.

41:34 - Good morning.

41:35 Our representative, Mr. Fine,

41:36 keeps referring to a study the DC did

41:39 about the un-infectiveness of mask in school.

41:44 That was a study before the Delta variant of COVID.

41:48 The Delta variant has affected kids

41:50 unlike any previous COVID variants.

41:54 Let’s say we’re in a war.

41:55 Would you position your men to Intel that was a month ago

41:58 or Intel that you got yesterday?

42:00 And would it be acceptable for a service man

42:02 to say on the battlefield, “It’s my right.

42:04 “I don’t want to cover you,”

42:06 as you reposition yourself across an open field?

42:09 No, it wouldn’t.

42:09 And we would lose the war.

42:11 We are losing teachers and kids are getting sick.

42:14 Since when has the school board become political?

42:16 You weren’t elected based on your politics.

42:20 - Thank you, Kathleen.

42:23 Ricky.

42:29 - My name is Ricky Marler.

42:31 Please put politics aside

42:32 and return to being an actual school board

42:34 that honestly cares about everybody.

42:36 Please be a good example of working together

42:39 to figure out solutions to get us kids the best education

42:41 with all the adversity in the world.

42:44 - Thanks, Ricky.

42:45 (audience applauding)

42:47 All right, Michelle Barrineau,

42:49 Daniel Espinosa and Connie Rook.

42:52 Can I apologize for not giving you guys a heads up?

42:55 - Okay.

42:55 Thank you board for having this meeting.

42:57 My name is Michelle Barrineau.

42:58 I’m the parent of a sixth grader

43:01 in the Broad school system.

43:03 The CDC has been part of a smear campaign

43:05 by people who don’t trust science or the government.

43:09 The CDC, which stands for Centers for Disease Control,

43:13 is this country’s leading science-based

43:16 data-driven service organization

43:17 that protects the public’s health.

43:19 They’re the ultimate in subject matter experts.

43:22 And according to the judge that recently cleared the path

43:24 for you to legally make reasonable rules,

43:27 by overwhelming evidence,

43:29 the CDC is considered preeminent medical authority

43:32 in the US, the gold standard.

43:34 This is all the information you need.

43:37 You don’t have to conduct studies

43:39 or search for data on the effectiveness of masks.

43:42 You are not experts in infectious disease

43:44 and you shouldn’t be expected to be.

43:46 You can rely on United States Centers

43:48 for Disease Control recommendation.

43:50 Maximize protection by instituting universal masking

43:54 in the schools with a medical opt-out.

43:56 Don’t let the purpose be enemy of the good.

44:00 - After Daniel and Connie, we have Susan Pinsky,

44:03 Melissa D. Francesco, and Dana Schmidt.

44:06 Daniel.

44:08 - I have daughters.

44:11 For you to protect our children by requiring masks.

44:15 Hello, can you hear me now?

44:16 Okay.

44:18 I have daughters in elementary school and preschool.

44:20 I implore you to protect our children by requiring masks.

44:23 Listen to our local public health officials

44:25 who have made it clear in previous meetings

44:27 that masks help reduce the spread.

44:30 Don’t listen to quack doctors

44:32 or misinformed citizen scientists.

44:34 Please don’t let the selfishness of some

44:37 hurt the health of all, especially our children.

44:41 In the end, the anger over personal liberty will fade,

44:44 but the serious illness or death of a child won’t.

44:47 Thank you.

44:48 - Thank you, Daniel.

44:49 Connie.

44:54 - Good morning.

44:55 School’s important and it’s not just about the academics,

44:58 but you know that, yes?

45:00 You wouldn’t be sitting here if you didn’t believe

45:01 in the value of our schools for our kids,

45:03 our families, and our community.

45:05 But our schools are not okay.

45:07 Our teachers and our kids, they are not okay.

45:10 It’s bad.

45:10 In many of our classrooms, learning is not happening.

45:13 Parents are pulling their kids out to homeschool.

45:15 There are thousands of quarantines, sick teachers,

45:17 sick kids, shortage of the subs, bus drivers.

45:20 ICUs and hospitals are stressed.

45:22 People are dying.

45:23 It’s bad.

45:24 And you know that.

45:26 But you also know that you have a power to make it better.

45:28 You have had doctors and medical professionals

45:30 sit in this room and advise you as to what needs to happen.

45:33 Masks work, and you know that.

45:36 You refuse to, and if you refuse to understand that,

45:39 then you have no business being on a school board.

45:41 We need you to stop worrying about

45:43 where your next campaign donation is coming from.

45:46 We need you to step up and do the right thing.

45:48 We need you to take action to protect our kids,

45:50 protect our teachers, protect our schools.

45:53 Vote yes today and pass a policy

45:54 to require masks in our schools.

45:55 Thank you. - Thank you, Connie.

45:58 - Susan Pinsky.

46:00 (silence)

46:06 - Good morning.

46:07 I’m a physician with a master’s in public health.

46:10 Our community is in crisis.

46:11 ICUs are at capacity.

46:13 Children and staff are hospitalized in record numbers.

46:17 Lives are in the balance,

46:18 and you as a school board have the opportunity

46:20 to make a difference in the face of a raging pandemic.

46:24 Numbers unlike we have ever seen.

46:26 Every possible mitigation strategy must be implemented

46:30 to protect our children and faculty.

46:33 At the same time, the greater lesson of community

46:35 and working towards a common good

46:37 underlines your fundamental decision.

46:40 Do we as adults perpetuate the political back and forth

46:42 about a topic that is beyond our jurisdiction,

46:45 or do we listen to the CDC,

46:47 the American Academy of Pediatrics,

46:49 whose singular goal is to prevent disease,

46:52 suffering, and loss of life?

46:54 The data is solid.

46:57 The school board must do everything in its power

47:00 to help keep us safe through this pandemic.

47:02 It is our only way out.

47:04 And this graph shows you from a natural–

47:07 - Thank you, Susan.

47:08 We appreciate you joining us this morning.

47:10 As Susan is approaching, our next group of three,

47:13 or I’m sorry, as Melissa is approaching,

47:15 our next group will be Sal Martingano,

47:17 Mike Schmidt, and Zoma Martingano.

47:20 Melissa?

47:22 - Good morning.

47:23 - Oh, one second, I’m sorry.

47:25 There you go.

47:27 - My family is vaccinated and we wear masks.

47:30 That includes when my kids are at school.

47:33 I’m here today for my friend, Valerie,

47:35 and her children who are too young to get vaccinated.

47:38 They pray every night for the doctors and scientists

47:40 who are making the vaccine for them.

47:43 I’m here today for my friend, Ellie,

47:45 whose daughter in public school

47:46 was exposed to the virus and tested positive.

47:49 Now, Ellie, a healthcare worker,

47:51 cannot support the efforts of our local hospitals

47:53 because she’s home caring for her daughter.

47:56 Board members, we need your help as a community.

47:59 We are fighting a war against the virus

48:02 and those of us who are vaccinated wear masks

48:05 and social distance are fighting on the front lines.

48:08 Those who refuse to wear a mask, social distancing,

48:10 and get a vaccine are simply letting the virus

48:13 break through the line.

48:15 We need your help holding the line,

48:18 stopping this virus from spreading and mutating again.

48:21 Please do the right thing today

48:22 and mandate masks in our public schools.

48:24 Our community needs your help.

48:27 - Thanks, Melissa.

48:30 Jana Schmidt.

48:37 - Hi, I’m Dr. Jana Schmidt.

48:39 I am a local doctor.

48:41 First, I wanna say we are truly blessed

48:42 with amazing people in our county

48:45 that are strong and supportive,

48:47 so I’m happy to see that here.

48:49 Wearing a mask to prevent catching a virus

48:52 is like throwing sand at a chain link fence.

48:55 It’s not that effective.

48:56 After reviewing all the CDC research worldwide,

49:01 there is no true viral transmission stop

49:05 that the face mask for children.

49:06 It doesn’t work.

49:08 So all parties mandating the use of face masks

49:10 are willingly and ignoring established science.

49:13 Mandating masks in schools have been proven

49:15 to be a major threat to child’s learning and development.

49:18 Illegally mandating masks generates liability.

49:22 A mask mandate is a direct conflict

49:23 with U.S. Code Section 360B3,

49:26 which requires a wearer to be informed

49:28 of the option to refuse of wearing such device.

49:31 And not giving the parents the right to choose

49:34 is a liability, it’s a problem,

49:35 because mask wearing presents severe risk and harm.

49:37 - Thank you, Jana.

49:38 We appreciate you joining us this morning.

49:41 (audience applauding)

49:46 Once again, I have asked previously,

49:50 please stop slowing the proceedings.

49:54 Sal.

50:03 - I’m Dr. Sal Martin Gano.

50:05 And we can argue the health pros and cons of masks

50:08 without resolution.

50:09 But the following is not meant

50:10 to inhibit anyone’s right to wear a mask.

50:12 It is, however, the constitutional right

50:15 of the individual to refuse.

50:16 And it’s all hidden in plain sight under the Constitution.

50:19 The U.S. Constitution mandates,

50:22 that is, mandates are not law.

50:24 And school boards cannot make mandates

50:26 in North Canadian-force laws.

50:28 Under the Section 18, United States Code 241-242,

50:32 conspiracy against constitutional rights, 241,

50:35 of any person who aspires to injure or oppress,

50:37 threaten or intimidate any inhibitor of the state

50:40 in the free exercise of the right of privilege

50:41 secured by him by the Constitution of the state,

50:45 they shall be fined not more than $10,000

50:48 or in prison more than 10 years or both.

50:51 Under 242, color of law, which means the appearance

50:54 of a legal right, that’s what I’m talking about, mandate.

50:57 Same story, the color of law willfully subjects the state

51:00 to fine that person more than $1,000

51:03 or one year in prison or both. - Thanks, Sal,

51:04 we appreciate you joining us this morning.

51:06 Mike? - Constitution.

51:09 (audience applauding)

51:12 - Stop.

51:16 - Ladies and gentlemen of the board,

51:18 thank you for serving our children

51:19 and for the opportunity to speak.

51:20 In Florida’s constitutional language,

51:22 there is a right to privacy, a strongly worded opinion

51:26 by Judge Tenenbaum of the Florida’s First District

51:28 Court of Appeals ruled in Justin Green

51:31 versus Alusha County last year in favor of Justin Green

51:34 over mass mandates imposed by the chair

51:36 of the Board of County Commissioners stating

51:38 that Green’s presumptive right to privacy was violated.

51:42 The judge said in his decision, “No right is more sacred

51:45 “than the right of every individual to the control

51:47 “of their own person free from all restraints.

51:49 “Interference of others or force restraints constitute

51:53 “a form of battery.”

51:54 Any state representative or judge is subject

51:57 to the tenets of the oath of office that they took

51:59 starting with, “I solemnly swear to support

52:01 “and defend the Constitution of the United States

52:04 “and the state of Florida and ending in, ‘So help me God,’

52:07 “is required to enforce this and a violation

52:10 “of this oath’s perjury.”

52:12 Thank you for serving, please do not rob our children

52:14 of the freedom and ability to grow

52:16 to their full potential.

52:17 Thank you.

52:18 - Thank you, Mike.

52:19 (audience applauding)

52:20 After Zuma, we’re going to have Marie Rogerson,

52:23 Pamela Lesh, and then Joanne Young.

52:26 Zuma?

52:32 Do we have a Zuma Martingano?

52:38 All right, looks like it’s you, Marie.

52:40 - I couldn’t hear you, I’m sorry.

52:41 You did call my name, correct?

52:42 - I did, yes. - Okay, thank you.

52:45 As I stand here currently, the governor’s executive order

52:47 is still law because a judgment has not been entered.

52:50 I quote from Cheryl Howell,

52:52 Professor of Public Law and Government at UNC, quote,

52:55 “According to Rule 58 of the Rules of Civil Procedure,

52:57 “a judgment is entered when it is reduced to writing,

52:59 “signed by the judge and filed with the clerk of courts.

53:02 “This means that statements made by the judge

53:04 “from the bench are not enforceable orders

53:05 “and a judge is not required to enter a written judgment

53:08 “that conforms to any statement made from the bench.

53:11 “A judgment cannot be enforced until it’s entered.”

53:14 End quote.

53:15 Should you vote to create a mandate today,

53:16 you are in fact breaking the law.

53:18 You have called this meeting prematurely.

53:20 By the time you can call another,

53:21 this order will likely have been stayed.

53:23 There are numerous massive class action lawsuits

53:26 being built in Florida against school boards

53:27 who have broken the law exactly as you are proposing to do.

53:30 Don’t ignore a standing executive order

53:33 and don’t flagrantly denounce the parental bill of rights,

53:35 a law which is not at risk of being overturned

53:38 by violating it.

53:39 The bottom line is this is wrong and it is illegal.

53:42 - Thanks, Marie.

53:43 (audience applauds)

53:46 Pamela Les.

53:52 - My name is Pamela.

53:53 I’m in Florida.

53:56 (mumbles)

54:01 Down here so my two sons can go to high school

54:05 without the forced mandates of masks.

54:07 My husband stayed behind to finish his career

54:09 in law enforcement to protect the rights

54:12 and freedoms of people there.

54:14 That’s what this is all about and I’m not an anomaly.

54:17 Many Americans have looked at Florida

54:19 as one of the few states that upholds

54:21 the Constitution and the law.

54:23 From a state that has a tyrannical governor and a mayor,

54:26 I have firsthand seen what happens

54:28 when you take breaks away from people.

54:30 Not to mention that masks don’t work

54:32 and Chicago is living proof.

54:34 I’m not here to say no to masks.

54:36 I’m here to say allow us to choose.

54:39 My children suffocate the mask

54:41 and it breeds unnecessary fear

54:43 as well as depression and suicide

54:45 and those are on the rise.

54:47 People, police and soldiers fight and die

54:49 for our rights to freedoms

54:50 and many are readily giving it away.

54:52 - Thank you, Pamela.

54:55 (audience applauds)

54:57 After Joanne, if you all would please stop the applause

55:01 so that the speakers can hear what I’m calling them.

55:03 This is the last time I’m asking.

55:04 If I have to address it again, I’m clearing the room

55:07 so we can keep moving.

55:09 All right, after Joanne, we have,

55:12 and I’m sorry if I mispronounced this,

55:14 Swarice Takacs, Michelle Beavers, and then Tanya Beavers.

55:18 Joanne, give me one second and you are ready.

55:21 - Good morning, I’m Joanne Young.

55:24 Our father who art in heaven created families.

55:29 He loves families.

55:31 He gave parents rules in how to raise their children

55:35 and rules for children in obeying their parents.

55:38 He gave parents authority over their children

55:42 to love them, to provide for their needs,

55:45 to nurture them and to educate them.

55:48 It doesn’t require an executive order.

55:51 That authority was and is freely given.

55:55 It is ours.

55:56 The enemy seeks to usurp that authority

56:00 and we cannot allow that.

56:03 Your August 10, three-two vote for making masks optional

56:08 allows for parental authority.

56:11 That is the bottom line, the norm.

56:14 Anything that would undermine that authority

56:17 will cause division, dissension and chaos.

56:22 As we have seen throughout– - Thank you, Joanne.

56:37 - Hello, my name is Sierra.

56:39 I’m in eighth grade at Cocoa Beach High

56:41 and I would like to speak about masks and vaccines.

56:44 My best friend didn’t get COVID the entire pandemic

56:47 until she got the vaccine a week ago.

56:49 Now her and her brother are quarantined for two weeks

56:52 and there is no virtual option for them.

56:54 I haven’t worn masks for most of the pandemic,

56:58 even while at camp for two weeks and I have not been sick.

57:02 So why are most of my teachers telling me

57:03 I should get the vaccine?

57:04 That should be a decision for my parents and doctor to make.

57:07 Not my teacher who was supposed to be teaching me.

57:10 I’ve told my parents I would prefer to leave BPS

57:12 and then spend the next year in a mask for eight hours a day.

57:16 I am not an experiment, I’m a real human being.

57:19 - Thank you. - Thank you.

57:25 - So we have Michelle Beavers and then Tanya Beavers.

57:27 After that we have Ashley Hall, Jody Hand and Jennifer Dunn.

57:32 Michelle, whenever you are ready.

57:35 - You make masks mandatory,

57:36 to be discriminated against before.

57:37 Privileged will go get doctor’s excuses

57:39 ‘cause there are numerous studies to support the fact

57:42 that mask wearing is detrimental to kids.

57:44 Many parents don’t have the resources to take time off work

57:46 and afford a doctor visit or have access to a doctor

57:49 that wants to hear them and bother writing a medical excuse.

57:52 There are no studies that support mask wearing for kids

57:55 but a CDC study did say when they did the study

57:59 in November and December that mask for kids

58:01 don’t work to prevent COVID.

58:03 The CDC published that study.

58:06 Kids are actually low risk of getting severely sick,

58:08 they’re more likely to die of the flu,

58:10 a car accident, drowning and cancer.

58:12 But then why didn’t we insist these kids

58:14 wear a mask for flu season every year

58:15 and require parents to fill in their swimming pools?

58:18 If you pass the mandate,

58:19 I am very sure that your COVID numbers will go down

58:22 but only because your attendance will also go down.

58:25 Many parents here will be taking their kids education

58:29 out of BPS hands.

58:30 Please stand if you plan to take your kids out of BPS

58:33 because of this.

58:35 - Thanks, Michelle.

58:37 Tanya?

58:41 - The CDC published a study that–

58:42 - Oh, hold on one second, I’m sorry.

58:45 Say that one more time.

58:47 - The CDC published a study done in November

58:50 through December of last year,

58:51 stating that masks do not work on children in school.

58:55 Let me say that again.

58:56 The CDC, the agency that’s responsible for disease control,

58:59 did a scientific study and found masks are useless

59:02 for kids in schools.

59:03 Then the CDC decided to ignore its own published findings

59:07 and say, “Put masks on anyway.”

59:09 I understand why the CDC discovered masks in schools

59:12 do not work.

59:13 In schools, kids take off their mask to eat

59:15 with no distancing.

59:17 They twirl their masks on their wrists, lunchboxes,

59:19 water bottles, and pick them up off of floors.

59:22 Kids touch door handles, railings, desktops,

59:25 and then put their masks away from their faces

59:27 in order to be heard in class.

59:28 This is in middle school.

59:30 I can’t imagine elementary.

59:32 I think masks are responsible for more transmission of COVID

59:35 than if they were not used.

59:37 This is about facts and science.

59:39 Don’t make it a political agenda.

59:41 - Thank you.

59:42 Ashley Hall.

59:49 - Hello, my name is Ashley Hall.

59:51 I’m the Brevard Chair of Moms for Liberty.

59:53 If a mask mandate is passed today,

59:55 it will technically be against the law.

59:58 And even after the ruling is signed,

59:59 it will be appealed and overturned.

1:00:01 Please do not continue putting our children, parents,

1:00:04 and staff on this ridiculous rollercoaster.

1:00:08 At the last meeting, we heard about the ridiculous process

1:00:11 and overburdening of our BPS administrators

1:00:13 with COVID quarantine protocols.

1:00:16 Why would we add to this burden right now

1:00:19 if a mask mandate is instated today,

1:00:21 our teachers and administrators will be piled on even more.

1:00:25 The DOH emergency rule allows for parents to opt out.

1:00:30 This is a parental opt out, not a medical opt out.

1:00:33 My child will be attending school without a mask.

1:00:37 I will not comply with any mask mandate.

1:00:39 You’ll have to kick me out.

1:00:41 - Thanks, Ashley.

1:00:43 Jody Hand.

1:00:44 And then after Jennifer Dunn, we have Isabelle Reagan,

1:00:47 Jessica Reagan, and Maren Caldwell.

1:00:51 Jody, whenever you’re ready.

1:00:53 - Thank you for your time.

1:00:55 I’m looking each of you in the eye right now.

1:00:58 And I’m asking you to follow the law.

1:01:02 Your mandates mean nothing.

1:01:04 HB 241 is law.

1:01:06 You have chosen to make this dais a political platform,

1:01:09 some of you.

1:01:12 This is not politics.

1:01:14 This is about parents.

1:01:16 This is about students.

1:01:17 This is about teachers.

1:01:19 Get back to the business of teaching our children

1:01:22 and stop this mask nonsense.

1:01:25 Should you choose to vote yes for a mask mandate,

1:01:27 you will be breaking the law.

1:01:29 I might remind you, Chairman Belford.

1:01:31 Excuse me, Chairwoman Belford.

1:01:33 You like to tell us that we’ll be breaking the law.

1:01:35 Should we speak out, you’ll be breaking the law

1:01:39 if you vote yes for a mask mandate.

1:01:42 I do not care if you want to wear one.

1:01:44 Please wear one if you think that worthless piece of cloth

1:01:46 is going to protect you.

1:01:48 If this were truly about safety,

1:01:49 you’d be closing the schools.

1:01:51 Thank you.

1:01:51 - Thanks, Jody.

1:01:55 Jennifer Dunn.

1:01:57 - Morning.

1:01:59 I’m here to read a speech on behalf of one of your

1:02:02 BPS third grade teachers who couldn’t be here today.

1:02:06 I have witnessed firsthand how required masks

1:02:09 and social distancing induce trauma on young students.

1:02:13 Trauma at a young age can be developmentally dangerous,

1:02:16 especially for children who are experiencing trauma

1:02:18 in other parts of their lives.

1:02:20 It is imperative that we balance the psychological needs

1:02:23 of our students as well as the physical needs.

1:02:25 Parents know best about what their student needs

1:02:28 and the school system should not be forcing

1:02:30 young people to wear masks.

1:02:32 It is unstudied, uninformed, and just plain child abuse.

1:02:36 Students need to be able to see each other

1:02:38 and their teachers to form strong bonds in development.

1:02:42 We must stop abusing this future generation

1:02:44 based on our own fear.

1:02:47 - Thank you.

1:02:49 Isabelle Regan, Regan.

1:02:55 - Hello, I’m Isabelle Regan and I’ve just come here to say

1:02:57 that I would get bullied at school for not wearing a mask.

1:03:01 And the reason why I get bullied because I don’t wear a mask

1:03:05 is because one, people hate me.

1:03:07 That’s just the way it goes.

1:03:09 Two, I can barely breathe in a mask

1:03:12 because I’m really athletic.

1:03:14 So I do a lot of running, horseback riding,

1:03:18 and that’s just basically what I came here to say

1:03:21 and this is what I think about masks.

1:03:23 - Thanks Isabelle.

1:03:26 Jessica Regan, and then after Maren,

1:03:30 we have Dee Boyles, Robin Davis, and George Horvath.

1:03:44 - Hello, 2 Timothy 1.7.

1:03:46 “For God hath not given us a spirit of fear,

1:03:49 but of power and love and a sound mind.”

1:03:54 My name is Jessica Regan.

1:03:56 I’m a physician assistant in psychiatry.

1:03:59 I treat children in Brevard County.

1:04:03 I’ve seen firsthand how much emotional damage

1:04:05 this has caused to our children.

1:04:08 Some of the trends I’ve seen are self mutilating,

1:04:11 alone, helpless, hopeless,

1:04:14 thinking the world would be better off without them.

1:04:16 I am here today not only for my children,

1:04:18 but also for the children I treat.

1:04:20 If you decide to mandate masks today,

1:04:23 we will have no choice but mask wars.

1:04:27 Peaceful non-compliance will be our only way forward.

1:04:33 Please, I beg you, if you stand for my rights

1:04:36 in the rights of my children, not vote for masks.

1:04:40 Thank you.

1:04:41 - Thanks, Jessica.

1:04:42 Maren, Caldwell.

1:04:48 - Thank you.

1:04:53 Forcing healthy children to repeated quarantine testing

1:04:56 and masking is not only tyranny, but abuse.

1:04:58 The one thing you all are not addressing

1:05:00 and taking into consideration

1:05:01 is the long-term negative effects

1:05:03 this will have on our children’s mental health.

1:05:05 My son is in sixth grade and has been quarantined twice

1:05:07 since school started and could have returned early

1:05:10 if I tested him.

1:05:11 However, I chose to decline that option

1:05:12 ‘cause I refuse to comply with the conditioning

1:05:15 by subjecting my healthy children

1:05:16 unnecessary medical testing.

1:05:18 Today was my son’s fourth day of school

1:05:21 since school started because of quarantines.

1:05:23 Last week, my son approached me and said,

1:05:25 “Mom, I think I’m starting to feel depressed.”

1:05:28 As a mother and a former educator of BPS,

1:05:30 this shook me to my core.

1:05:33 11-year-olds should not know what depression is,

1:05:37 let alone what it feels like.

1:05:39 I will no longer allow this board

1:05:40 to make decisions for my family.

1:05:42 Regardless of your vote today,

1:05:44 I am taking back full power and control by withdrawing

1:05:46 my healthy children out of BPS.

1:05:50 In order, I’m sorry, my children’s mental health

1:05:52 means more to me than subjecting them

1:05:54 to unnecessary quarantines testing.

1:05:55 - Thank you, Ann.

1:05:56 - We’re gonna receive an education.

1:05:58 - Dee Boyles, please step away.

1:06:00 Dee Boyles, your turn.

1:06:08 - Good morning.

1:06:09 There is no scientific evidence that mask saves lives.

1:06:13 None.

1:06:14 There is no conclusive proof to say that masks

1:06:17 have any effect on mitigating the COVID spread.

1:06:20 Even the CDC has stated on its website

1:06:23 that the research regarding masks is inconclusive.

1:06:27 The same CDC that the New York Times reported back in June

1:06:31 is broken and needs to be reformed.

1:06:35 Governor DeSantis made his decision based on the advice

1:06:37 of medical experts with a proper education and experience

1:06:41 to advise officials how to proceed in a pandemic.

1:06:44 One of those medical experts, Governor DeSantis relied on

1:06:48 and invited to the health round table discussion

1:06:50 was from England.

1:06:51 The New York Times just published an article on August 27th

1:06:54 that children in England do not wear masks in schools.

1:07:00 A pediatric infectious disease specialist states

1:07:03 that potential harms of children wearing masks

1:07:06 exceed the potential benefits.

1:07:08 - Thanks, Robin.

1:07:12 George Horvath, and then after George,

1:07:14 we have Karen Clark, Mia Hosey, and Shannon Marsh.

1:07:23 - Hi there, my name is Robin Davis.

1:07:24 I am a veteran BPS teacher that’s now retired.

1:07:27 And frankly, I loved my job when I was here,

1:07:29 but now I’m absolutely disgusted

1:07:31 by what the school system has become.

1:07:33 I’m not here to address the board.

1:07:35 I know what each of you stand for

1:07:36 and that your minds are already made up on this vote.

1:07:39 Mandatory masking and medical decisions

1:07:41 by the school system go against the law.

1:07:43 The judge’s order was illegal

1:07:44 because it goes against the parents’ bill of rights

1:07:47 and will be appealed and overturned.

1:07:49 So guess what, parents, it’s up to us.

1:07:52 This stops when we say it stops.

1:07:54 It’s time to pull your kids out of BPS

1:07:56 or make plans to do so

1:07:58 and impact their financial bottom line.

1:08:01 Stop giving them the power of your children’s mental,

1:08:03 physical, and academic health.

1:08:05 We know the long-term impacts are huge.

1:08:08 Get creative, work with other families

1:08:10 to provide education for your kids.

1:08:12 Virtual, hybrid, homeschool, private school.

1:08:15 Today, it’s a re-vote on masks while they track and trace,

1:08:18 manipulate data, and report on healthy citizens.

1:08:20 What’s next, vaccines, anti-American curriculum?

1:08:24 They don’t respect your parental rights or the law today

1:08:26 and they won’t respect them tomorrow

1:08:27 for the next big issue. - Thanks, Robin.

1:08:33 George?

1:08:36 - Yes, hi, my name is George Horvath.

1:08:38 I’m just a guy who lives in Palm Bay

1:08:41 and I don’t know, I like to use my common sense.

1:08:45 It’s just, I feel like we’re back in the dark ages

1:08:48 or some discussing this ridiculous thing.

1:08:50 I mean, there’s obviously,

1:08:51 there’s like arguments pro and contra,

1:08:53 but there’s so many studies that show masks don’t work.

1:08:57 Obviously, this is political or something.

1:08:59 And I mean, this country was kind of founded

1:09:03 on not trusting the government and governmental bodies.

1:09:07 And CDC is a governmental entity.

1:09:11 And I don’t know why this blind trust in the CDC,

1:09:13 one of the foremost studies over here

1:09:16 is like an investigation,

1:09:18 I’m gonna read a couple of words,

1:09:20 which it talks about two symptomatically ill hairstylists

1:09:27 interacted with an average of 15 minutes.

1:09:30 It’s like, these are not randomized controlled trials.

1:09:36 It’s totally absurd what’s on that website.

1:09:38 - Thanks George, we appreciate you joining us this morning.

1:09:41 Karen Clark.

1:09:51 - Good morning board.

1:09:52 My name is Karen Clark.

1:09:53 I’m here to speak to you regarding masks,

1:09:56 not just masks, but the closing of schools.

1:10:01 Since the beginning of school,

1:10:02 you have to follow the Department of Education’s rules

1:10:06 about quarantining.

1:10:07 So you have so many kids having COVID,

1:10:13 being exposed to COVID, teachers in ICU,

1:10:16 and basically your only possible mitigation

1:10:19 and it’s not 100%, nothing is, is masking.

1:10:24 Last year, you opened schools with masks.

1:10:26 This year, it seems to be some big thing.

1:10:29 I don’t know.

1:10:30 I don’t understand the, follow the rules people,

1:10:34 but not if it conflicts with what I want.

1:10:38 Well, schools, you’re already co-parenting

1:10:40 every day with schools.

1:10:41 You send your kid there and they take care of them.

1:10:45 So please do the right thing for these kids

1:10:48 and your teachers and the community.

1:10:50 Thank you.

1:10:51 - Thanks, Karen.

1:10:52 Mia Hosey.

1:10:55 After Mia, we have Shannon Marsh,

1:10:57 followed by Stephanie Anderson,

1:10:58 Theresa Lupe and Ryan Schlip.

1:11:01 Mia, whenever you’re ready.

1:11:02 - Good morning.

1:11:04 The mask optional policy is the reason COVID-19 cases

1:11:08 shot through the roof the first few days of school

1:11:11 and has not lit up yet.

1:11:13 One of the hallmarks of this virus

1:11:16 is that there is asymptomatic transmission

1:11:20 through respiratory droplets,

1:11:21 making it impossible to tell who’s contagious and who’s not.

1:11:26 The science is clear that universal masking in schools

1:11:30 is essential to mitigation.

1:11:32 It is cruel to insist that it’s okay

1:11:35 for kids to get sick in our schools

1:11:37 with a virus we don’t fully understand.

1:11:40 That it’s okay for teachers and staff

1:11:43 to be in the ICU to pass away.

1:11:46 It’s cruel to act like we should go on

1:11:49 like nothing is happening.

1:11:51 When did teachers and bus drivers and support staff

1:11:55 custodial staff become expendable?

1:11:58 When did our students become expendable?

1:12:00 This has gone way too far

1:12:02 and I urge you to institute a mask.

1:12:07 - Shannon Marsh.

1:12:14 - Hi, I’m a 27 year public health professional

1:12:17 and a parent of a fourth grader.

1:12:19 I’m speaking today as the representative

1:12:21 and voice of almost 175 people who could not be here

1:12:25 because they’re either caring for their children at home,

1:12:28 at work, or they themselves are homesick with COVID.

1:12:31 This group consists of current and retired teachers,

1:12:34 doctors and nurses who are in the hospitals

1:12:36 caring for COVID patients, high risk pregnant women,

1:12:40 parents and grandparents of school age children

1:12:43 and immunocompromised people.

1:12:45 Many of their names are included here on this poster board.

1:12:49 We want you to know that we see the alarming data

1:12:52 from the BPS population.

1:12:54 We see the negative consequences

1:12:56 of the lack of mitigation measures in our schools right now.

1:13:00 We personally know people who are suffering

1:13:02 as a result of that.

1:13:04 And Brevardians have already shown

1:13:05 that they cannot make responsible choices

1:13:07 because their choices is what got us here.

1:13:11 So we want to implore you to please implement a multi-

1:13:18 - Steph, your time is up ma’am, I’m sorry, Stephanie.

1:13:24 - Stephanie Anderson, one minute allotted.

1:13:31 I’m gonna speak quickly of a certified global mandate

1:13:34 that we’ve all been given as Americans.

1:13:37 Because I’m holding this flag,

1:13:39 you already know which side of the mask

1:13:41 and the quarantine issue that I’m on.

1:13:44 And that should be a wake up call to everybody.

1:13:47 The people who carry the American flag

1:13:49 are on the side of freedom, liberty, morality and values,

1:13:54 which side are you on?

1:13:56 If you continue as a board to attempt to implement tyranny

1:13:59 instead of freedom of choice,

1:14:01 we as Americans have a real mandate by duty

1:14:04 given to us by our founding fathers,

1:14:06 the declaration and the constitution.

1:14:08 And that mandate given to us

1:14:11 is to overthrow a tyrannical government

1:14:13 if it attempts to limit our lives, our liberties,

1:14:17 our pursuit of happiness,

1:14:19 which is exactly what you guys are proposing to do weekly.

1:14:24 That’s why the founders added the second amendment

1:14:27 to the constitution. - Thanks, Stephanie.

1:14:30 Theresa, please step away from the mic, ma’am.

1:14:42 - Theresa, Theresa Lou, I’m sorry.

1:14:45 - Just one second, no, you’re good.

1:14:46 I just wanna make sure I call our next group

1:14:47 ‘cause we have some coming from outside.

1:14:49 So after Theresa, we have Ryan Schlipp,

1:14:51 then we have Pamela Pedlow, Christina Fox,

1:14:53 and then Jennifer Stratford, Theresa?

1:14:57 - Theresa Lou, mother of four

1:14:59 and a licensed board certified

1:15:01 psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner

1:15:03 treating ages six and up.

1:15:05 As a professional and expert in my field,

1:15:07 I’m commenting on mental health and math.

1:15:10 Mental health is a serious concern in this pandemic

1:15:13 and it includes our children.

1:15:14 Mental health has declined and suicidality is increasing.

1:15:18 Some associate this with math.

1:15:20 Pandemic anxiety, depression, and suicidality

1:15:24 are a result of fear, loss, isolation,

1:15:28 even parental distress.

1:15:29 I assure you the vast majority of children and adolescents

1:15:32 can comfortably tolerate wearing a mask properly

1:15:35 and regularly, especially when this is supported

1:15:38 by their parents and their educators.

1:15:40 Implementing full mitigation procedures,

1:15:42 including universal masking will help protect

1:15:44 the mental health of our children, not hurt it.

1:15:47 Please vote yes to inspire mask wearing in our schools.

1:15:50 Thank you.

1:15:51 - Thanks, Theresa.

1:15:52 Brian.

1:15:59 - Brian, the facts speak for themselves.

1:16:03 I’m not gonna reiterate them.

1:16:05 This pandemic gave us the opportunity to come together,

1:16:08 but the pandemic of misinformation has only divided us.

1:16:12 I want the best for my kids

1:16:14 and masks are the middle ground.

1:16:17 If we are ever to achieve a sense of normalcy,

1:16:20 it’s through full mitigation.

1:16:22 Thank you.

1:16:24 - Thanks, Brian.

1:16:26 Pamela Pedlow.

1:16:33 - Good morning, thank you for letting me speak.

1:16:36 The issue here today is does the school district

1:16:38 under its legislatively given powers

1:16:40 have the authority to set a rule

1:16:41 that infringes on parents’ rights?

1:16:44 The answer is yes.

1:16:45 The Parents’ Bill of Rights states

1:16:47 that any government unit may not infringe

1:16:49 on the parental rights of education and healthcare

1:16:51 without demonstration that such action is reasonable

1:16:55 and necessary to achieve a compelling state interest.

1:17:00 You cannot drink and drive because your right to drink

1:17:02 does not allow you to risk the lives of others.

1:17:05 You have freedom of speech,

1:17:06 but you cannot tell lies about people,

1:17:08 harass or intimidate people,

1:17:10 and you can’t shout fire in the middle of a crowded theater.

1:17:13 The CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics

1:17:16 recommends universal masking of K through 12 children,

1:17:19 regardless of vaccination status.

1:17:21 Orange County estimated that 20%

1:17:23 of all new positive COVID cases

1:17:25 are among children aged five to 14.

1:17:27 John Dunn said, “No man is an island entire of itself.

1:17:30 Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”

1:17:33 We have a responsibility to one another.

1:17:34 - Thank you, Pamela.

1:17:35 We appreciate you joining us this morning.

1:17:36 Christina Fox.

1:17:39 After Christina, we have Jennifer Strafford,

1:17:41 Sharon Barone, and then Karen Colby and Sarah Schiavarrio.

1:17:49 Christina.

1:17:50 Oh, one second.

1:17:51 There you go.

1:17:52 - Good morning.

1:17:53 There is a meeting going on with DeSantis and CDC right now.

1:17:56 And he said that the ruling will be overturned on appeal.

1:17:58 He also just said that the CDC just said

1:18:01 that there are no more children in the hospital with COVID

1:18:03 than there were before.

1:18:04 He’s saying the increase in cases

1:18:06 is because of catching more mild and asymptomatic cases

1:18:09 because of increased testing in that age range.

1:18:12 He believes that the data shows

1:18:14 the total amount of COVID is actually going down.

1:18:17 He’s also saying that there’s a huge increase

1:18:18 in childhood obesity because of things being shut down

1:18:22 and that’s a much higher risk.

1:18:23 And I would also like to add

1:18:25 that our district reports differently

1:18:28 than any other district in the state.

1:18:30 The other districts use a program called

1:18:33 Microsoft Power BI Business Institution.

1:18:36 You can go into each school within that district.

1:18:39 You can see the cases of not only quarantines,

1:18:42 but positive cases.

1:18:44 Our school district does not do that.

1:18:47 It’s a very static PDF file.

1:18:49 When you go on, you see the quarantines, but not the tests.

1:18:51 So what are you hiding?

1:18:53 - Thanks, Christina.

1:18:57 Jennifer Strafford.

1:19:02 - That was her.

1:19:03 - Oh, that was Jennifer.

1:19:03 I’m sorry.

1:19:06 Christina Fox did not speak, right?

1:19:09 Okay, Sharon Barone, she did speak as well.

1:19:14 Sorry, it’s a short timeframe to keep up with it all.

1:19:18 - Yes, hi, good morning.

1:19:19 I’m Sharon Barone and I’m just here to name a few

1:19:21 of the things that are harmful by wearing a mask.

1:19:25 Number one, medical masks adversely affect

1:19:29 respiratory physiology and function.

1:19:31 Number two, medical masks lower oxygen levels

1:19:34 in the blood by at least 20%.

1:19:38 Medical masks raise carbon dioxide levels in the blood.

1:19:42 Medical masks trap exhaled viral

1:19:45 and other pathogens in the mouth, mask interspace,

1:19:49 and increase viral infectious load

1:19:51 and increase the severity of disease.

1:19:55 Masks worn imperfectly are very dangerous.

1:19:58 And once again, I’ve seen every mask wearer in the room

1:20:02 touch their mask, so they really need to throw them out.

1:20:05 Once touched, it’s contaminated.

1:20:09 Masks do collect and colonize viruses, bacteria, and mold.

1:20:14 Wearing a face mask makes the exhaled air go into the eyes.

1:20:18 - Thank you, Sharon, we appreciate you joining us.

1:20:22 - Are dangerous. - Karen Colby.

1:20:28 Thank you.

1:20:32 And after Karen and Sarah, we have LaShawn Taylor,

1:20:37 Cheryl Wojcickowski, and Catherine Hamilton.

1:20:42 Karen?

1:20:44 - Yeah, hi, I’m from District Three,

1:20:48 and I’m an anti-mask mom.

1:20:52 I’m rather a more of a freedom of parental choice mom,

1:20:55 because I know a lot of you out there

1:20:57 want to have your kids masked in school,

1:20:59 and I see them wearing the mask, so it worked.

1:21:02 So now that we’re also not being made

1:21:04 to put our kids’ masks in school this year,

1:21:06 it’s being a little different,

1:21:08 ‘cause you guys are testing so many kids

1:21:10 where last year you did it.

1:21:11 So I’d like to say that I think that’s why the race is.

1:21:15 It’s against the law to violate this House Bill

1:21:19 passed in part with Brandy Fine.

1:21:23 As Thomas Jefferson has said, he wants to recall Jenkins,

1:21:26 we’re gonna take care of things.

1:21:28 Anybody who votes for something illegal,

1:21:29 we’re gonna have to remove you.

1:21:31 I respect the ones of you that are gonna stand with us,

1:21:33 but please stand with us, don’t fight with us.

1:21:36 We’re in there with you, we volunteer in the classroom,

1:21:38 we read to the students, we help them with math.

1:21:41 I’ve raised six kids in your public schools.

1:21:43 I trust you guys, please do the right thing.

1:21:45 - Thanks, Karen. - No mask.

1:21:48 - Sarah?

1:21:56 - Good morning, I’m Sarah,

1:21:57 realist mental health advocate.

1:21:59 According to the CDC, there was a 22.3% spike in ER trips

1:22:05 for potential suicide attempts in children ages 12 to 17

1:22:09 in the summer of 2020 compared to the summer of 2019.

1:22:13 I’d like to take a moment of silence for the BPS students

1:22:16 who have committed suicide

1:22:17 because of the mental health issues created by

1:22:21 enforcing reckless rules and regulations

1:22:23 in the ‘22 school year.

1:22:25 And I want to include all the kids

1:22:26 who will end up committing suicide

1:22:28 in this current school year due to your choosing

1:22:31 political gains over mental health.

1:22:46 Mental health is just as important as physical health.

1:22:49 Thank you.

1:22:50 - Thank you.

1:22:52 Cheryl?

1:22:57 - I’m sorry, LaShawn Taylor.

1:23:02 Thank you, Ms. Campbell, for keeping me on track down there.

1:23:07 - Hello, I’m LaShawn Taylor.

1:23:09 I’m here on behalf of my daughter,

1:23:10 who I spoke about the past two ago meeting,

1:23:14 about how she had become mentally disturbed

1:23:18 from wearing the mask.

1:23:19 I thought she had GI issues and had numerous tests done,

1:23:23 but when we narrowed it down,

1:23:24 it was mental illness due to masks.

1:23:26 Being since school has started with no masks,

1:23:29 she’s not had one single panic attack,

1:23:31 and we had four straight months of panic attack.

1:23:34 She has not had one single panic attack,

1:23:36 and we are not doing this again.

1:23:37 We’re not.

1:23:39 We’re not doing this again.

1:23:40 The science is not there.

1:23:42 The masks do more harm than good,

1:23:45 and it’s messing our kids up.

1:23:47 You think your kid’s fine?

1:23:48 They really are not fine.

1:23:50 They’re really not.

1:23:51 It’s mentally disturbing them slowly

1:23:53 until it’s a big drama,

1:23:54 and then you’re gonna wish

1:23:55 that you didn’t do this to our kid.

1:23:57 Thank you.

1:23:58 - Thank you.

1:24:00 Carol.

1:24:06 - Do not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

1:24:10 Today, you are hearing reports of fringe studies,

1:24:12 complaints about kids touching a mask,

1:24:14 or noses peeking out.

1:24:15 These reports attempt to pull your focus

1:24:17 away from the fact that universal masking works.

1:24:21 The data is there.

1:24:23 I don’t need to rehash it.

1:24:24 Even with some slip-ups,

1:24:25 masks reduce the number of airborne,

1:24:28 infectious respiratory particles,

1:24:30 and therefore reduce the number of infections.

1:24:33 So Brevard School Board members,

1:24:35 with the judge’s recent decision,

1:24:36 you now have no excuse.

1:24:38 Will you continue to show the unjustified pride

1:24:40 currently demonstrated,

1:24:41 or will you show the humility,

1:24:43 listen to the expert recommendations,

1:24:45 and put our children above politics?

1:24:48 Tonight, will you sleep knowing that you did all you could

1:24:51 to protect our kids

1:24:53 by requiring masks in school,

1:24:55 or will you pander to the fringe voices

1:24:56 that think they know better than the experts?

1:24:59 The deaths of Brevard School employees

1:25:00 have already happened.

1:25:02 Can you tell their families,

1:25:03 or God forbid the families,

1:25:04 that will lose children that you did all you could?

1:25:08 - Thanks, Carol.

1:25:10 As Catherine’s approaching,

1:25:11 after Catherine Hamilton,

1:25:12 we have Michael Nobis,

1:25:13 Christina Tichichian,

1:25:17 and Marie Lewis.

1:25:20 - Catherine.

1:25:21 - Good morning.

1:25:22 I’m here because obviously this is still a problem,

1:25:25 and the way we voted last time didn’t do anything.

1:25:27 I’ll remind you again,

1:25:28 I’m a nurse in the hospital.

1:25:30 And in the hospital,

1:25:31 when people have droplet or any kind of respiratory disease,

1:25:34 we wear a mask.

1:25:35 It’s required because they work.

1:25:38 When you have a problem with your car,

1:25:40 you go to your mechanic.

1:25:41 When you have a question about a law,

1:25:42 you talk to a lawyer.

1:25:44 And when you have questions about your medical things,

1:25:46 you talk to your doctor.

1:25:48 And when those things just affect you,

1:25:50 that’s your choice.

1:25:51 When they affect others,

1:25:53 when it affects a population,

1:25:55 you go to public health officials.

1:25:57 And public health officials are recommending masks.

1:26:00 Before you didn’t have support,

1:26:02 you had bullying against you.

1:26:04 Now you’re supported.

1:26:05 We’re behind you.

1:26:07 And I recommend wearing masks to people.

1:26:09 The CDC recommends wearing masks to people.

1:26:12 The doctors that I work with recommend wearing masks

1:26:15 because they work.

1:26:16 Thank you.

1:26:17 - Thank you.

1:26:19 Michael.

1:26:22 Michael Nobis, Palm Bay.

1:26:26 I rise in opposition to mandatory mask mandates.

1:26:29 I believe this body got it right in the first place

1:26:33 by making it optional.

1:26:35 My second concern is the number of people on quarantine.

1:26:41 There’s gotta be close to 13,000 in quarantine.

1:26:44 Why?

1:26:45 There’s where I think the changes need to be made.

1:26:49 I’m not sure what the criteria for it is.

1:26:51 Just because somebody was in a room,

1:26:53 maybe somebody tested positive.

1:26:57 How many of those people will test positive?

1:27:01 Are there any numbers on that?

1:27:03 I’m looking and I’m trying my best to find it, but I can’t.

1:27:07 Okay, thank you for giving me some time.

1:27:10 - Thank you.

1:27:12 Christina.

1:27:19 - Hello.

1:27:20 The World Health Organization, the CDC,

1:27:22 and the American Academy of Pediatrics

1:27:24 all recommend universal masking

1:27:25 in areas with high transmission.

1:27:27 Some feel that our community transmission is so high

1:27:29 that masks aren’t gonna do anything to help.

1:27:32 While we can’t control what kids do

1:27:33 outside the school system,

1:27:34 it’s not right for kids who have been careful

1:27:36 to be exposed to unmasked contagious kids in class.

1:27:39 Last week, my elementary age daughter sat in school

1:27:42 surrounded by unmasked kids,

1:27:43 coughing and sniffling all around her.

1:27:45 My daughter plays sports outside with a mask.

1:27:48 She attends scouts outside with a mask.

1:27:50 We don’t go to indoor activities

1:27:51 unless everybody wears a mask.

1:27:53 The most risky thing my daughter’s been doing

1:27:55 in the past 18 months

1:27:56 is attending a Brevard County public school.

1:27:59 Young kids cannot get vaccinated.

1:28:02 There are only so many things that we can do

1:28:03 and study after study shows that universal masking helps.

1:28:07 We have no other choice at this point.

1:28:08 She does not deserve to have her health

1:28:10 and her family’s health put at risk

1:28:11 while she’s trying to get an education.

1:28:13 It’s your duty as government to protect children

1:28:16 that are in your custody.

1:28:18 - Thank you.

1:28:21 Next is Marie Lewis.

1:28:22 After that, we have Erin Dunn,

1:28:24 Jerry Knert and Mariah Thomas.

1:28:27 Marie.

1:28:28 - Thank you.

1:28:29 I am the mother of a student at Quest Elementary School.

1:28:33 I have family members and coworkers

1:28:35 who have been hospitalized and died from COVID.

1:28:39 I have two children too young to be vaccinated.

1:28:42 I am not an infectious disease specialist.

1:28:44 I don’t pretend to be.

1:28:46 But those who are have laid out evidence time and again,

1:28:49 that the best tool we have to keep schools open

1:28:53 and limit spread is universal masking.

1:28:56 I am also a military spouse.

1:28:58 I love this country.

1:28:59 I love our freedoms.

1:29:04 I am not here to try to take freedom from anyone.

1:29:08 What I am here for is to care for the person

1:29:11 to my left and my right.

1:29:12 My husband did that for 22 years in the Marine Corps.

1:29:15 He would take a bullet for any of you.

1:29:18 I am asking you to ask our families

1:29:20 to put on a mask for my family.

1:29:24 Wearing a mask helps protect our most vulnerable

1:29:26 from disease and death.

1:29:28 One more is too many.

1:29:28 - Thank you, Marie.

1:29:30 - Thank you.

1:29:31 - Erin.

1:29:37 - I stand before you today

1:29:38 as a former Brevard Public Schools teacher,

1:29:40 not only for myself,

1:29:41 but for all of my former colleagues, family members

1:29:43 and friends who are currently in Brevard Public Schools.

1:29:46 And for those who plan to speak,

1:29:47 but are currently quarantined

1:29:49 because their COVID positive children were infected

1:29:51 in your schools over the last few weeks.

1:29:53 School board members in Florida statute 1001.42,

1:29:57 section eight, letter A,

1:29:58 it states that school board members as school board members,

1:30:01 you must, and I quote,

1:30:02 “Provide for proper attention to health,

1:30:05 safety and matters relating to the welfare of students.”

1:30:09 Dr. Mullins, Florida statute 1001.49, section two,

1:30:14 details that your duties include, and I quote,

1:30:16 “Advise and counsel with the district school board

1:30:18 on all educational matters

1:30:20 and recommend to the district school board

1:30:22 for actions such as such matters that should be acted upon.”

1:30:26 Judge Cooper’s ruling on Friday states

1:30:27 that DeSantis’ order contradicts state law

1:30:30 because it is not reasonable to expose children to illness

1:30:34 when there are simple steps to take to make them safer.

1:30:37 Thank you.

1:30:37 - Thank you, Erin.

1:30:39 Jerry.

1:30:42 After Jerry, then Mariah, we have Brittany Hankin,

1:30:45 Christie Shelley, and then Stephanie Branham.

1:30:48 Whenever you’re ready, sir.

1:30:49 - Good morning, I’m Jerry Cooner,

1:30:50 substitute teacher for Riviera Elementary.

1:30:54 At the beginning of this year,

1:30:56 I lost a teacher and a friend.

1:31:01 One day after the teacher died, her mother passed away.

1:31:08 I wear a mask, but I wear a mask to protect you,

1:31:13 to protect the student.

1:31:15 They do very little to protect me.

1:31:19 If you wear a mask, the students wear a mask,

1:31:24 they’re helping protect me and all the others around them.

1:31:31 Doctors, nurses, surgical teams,

1:31:34 they wear a mask to protect you from being affected

1:31:38 when you’re in surgery.

1:31:40 Imagine going to surgery and the doctors, nurses,

1:31:44 and surgical team exercise their right of freedom

1:31:48 not to wear a mask.

1:31:50 - Thank you, Jerry. - Gloves.

1:31:54 - Mariah.

1:32:00 - Good morning.

1:32:01 As a first time mom of an eight month old,

1:32:04 it might seem odd that I show up today

1:32:06 because my child is not currently affected by this decision.

1:32:09 I’m here to speak on behalf of caring mothers

1:32:13 and as a voice of the future.

1:32:16 What we do now not only affects the children today,

1:32:19 but those of tomorrow.

1:32:21 In just eight months of being a mother,

1:32:22 I’ve learned the importance

1:32:23 of creating a safe environment for my son.

1:32:26 I know my son’s everyday struggles and needs,

1:32:29 and I strive to keep him out of harm.

1:32:31 If policies are being put in place

1:32:33 that take the right from parents

1:32:35 to make choices for their children,

1:32:37 ones that they believe are in their child’s best interest,

1:32:40 we as parents have failed to create environments

1:32:43 of security and safety.

1:32:45 In your efforts to mandate masking our children

1:32:48 as a form of protection,

1:32:50 you as a school board have created places of learning

1:32:53 that teach an unconstitutional lifestyle

1:32:56 that disrespects and violates our children’s rights.

1:33:01 - Thank you, Mariah.

1:33:03 Brittany.

1:33:06 Brittany Hankins.

1:33:15 - Here we are again talking about

1:33:16 whether you will require my child to wear a cloth

1:33:19 over her mouth and nose for seven hours a day.

1:33:21 I’m here to tell you that you,

1:33:23 nor anyone else in this room,

1:33:25 has a right to make that choice.

1:33:26 It’s my responsibility.

1:33:29 And the Parents’ Bill of Rights

1:33:30 protects my medical decisions for my child.

1:33:33 And to think these children are wearing them properly

1:33:35 and effectively is insane, let alone adults.

1:33:38 My five-year-old is learning how to read this year.

1:33:41 How does she do that in a mask?

1:33:43 She will not participate if she’s muzzled.

1:33:45 She will instead withdraw mentally and emotionally.

1:33:48 Right now, she loves school,

1:33:49 and I don’t want to ever see her lose that.

1:33:52 She attended pre-K this last year,

1:33:55 maskless and without incident.

1:33:57 This year, we do numerous extracurriculars,

1:34:01 and again, maskless and without incident.

1:34:04 Could it be, dare I say,

1:34:05 her natural immune system doing its job?

1:34:09 Keep masks optional and provided.

1:34:11 Thank you.

1:34:12 - Thank you.

1:34:13 Christy?

1:34:16 After Christy, we have Stephanie Branum,

1:34:18 followed by Grace Keller,

1:34:19 then Jessica Bellinger, and Austin Bell.

1:34:23 - I am against the mask mandate for our students.

1:34:26 I kept my children out of public school last year

1:34:29 to avoid the COVID chaos

1:34:31 because of the parents’ bill of rights

1:34:32 and the removal of the mask mandate.

1:34:35 I sent my children back to school this year.

1:34:37 If a mask mandate is put in place,

1:34:38 I may again have to pull my children.

1:34:41 As a former Brevard public school teacher,

1:34:43 I have studied early childhood development,

1:34:45 and it is imperative that children see faces

1:34:47 of their peers and teachers for proper development.

1:34:50 Forcing our children to wear masks

1:34:52 inhibits their ability to develop proper social

1:34:55 and emotional reasoning, both immediately and long-term.

1:34:59 This is not what is best for our students.

1:35:01 If you’ve actually walked into schools,

1:35:03 you would find that most students, teachers,

1:35:05 and admin are not wearing masks,

1:35:07 despite having the right and the freedom to wear them.

1:35:10 If the majority of parents in our county

1:35:12 wanted a mask mandate,

1:35:13 their children would already be wearing masks.

1:35:15 We must allow parents to choose

1:35:17 what is best for their children.

1:35:20 Do not force a medical device on our children

1:35:22 because you feel uncomfortable.

1:35:24 - Thank you, Christy. - Thank you.

1:35:25 - Stephanie?

1:35:30 (coughs)

1:35:32 - Carol, I just wanna let you know

1:35:34 we are political refugees from California.

1:35:37 We fled the state to come to Florida

1:35:40 to have freedom for ourselves and our children.

1:35:43 Bullying our children into wearing masks

1:35:46 is going against what we teach them.

1:35:49 Why are we allowing adults

1:35:51 who should be setting a good leadership example

1:35:54 for our children to bully them into wearing these masks?

1:35:58 I invite you to come to my home,

1:36:00 feed and clothe my children, drive them to school,

1:36:03 pick them up for their activities,

1:36:05 since you all want to parent for me.

1:36:08 No to forceful mask wearing.

1:36:10 Yes to allowing parents

1:36:12 to see what is fit for their children too.

1:36:15 No one should be telling us how we should parent.

1:36:17 It is our constitutional right.

1:36:19 Let’s not forget that.

1:36:21 And a little side note,

1:36:22 my daughter was quarantined this week.

1:36:25 And guess what?

1:36:26 She’s not sick.

1:36:27 So maybe we should revisit the validity

1:36:29 of these quarantine numbers.

1:36:30 A little food for thought.

1:36:32 - Thank you.

1:36:34 Grace Peller.

1:36:38 And board members, just FYI,

1:36:40 it’s my plan after Austin Bell to take a brief recess, okay?

1:36:48 - My name is Grace.

1:36:49 I’m here to support optional masking.

1:36:52 The first few weeks of school should have showed you

1:36:55 what the will of the people you serve is

1:36:57 with the vast overwhelming majority not wearing masks.

1:37:02 That should tell you everything you need to know.

1:37:04 Please understand that no one forgot it’s a pandemic.

1:37:07 No one forgot about COVID.

1:37:09 No one forgot about the risks of being sick.

1:37:12 Yet children and teachers choose breathing air

1:37:15 and smiling faces over fear.

1:37:18 I hope you all understand that you cannot deprive children

1:37:21 or teachers of breathing air.

1:37:23 It’s a basic necessity.

1:37:25 You cannot impose medical tyranny

1:37:27 through forced masking and vaccination.

1:37:29 Let the children breathe

1:37:31 and let them show their beautiful faces.

1:37:34 Thank you.

1:37:36 - Jessica.

1:37:39 (audience laughing)

1:37:47 - Roughly 385 of the 73 million children

1:37:50 in the United States have died from COVID.

1:37:52 This means that in the U.S. a child has a 0.00052% chance

1:37:57 of dying from COVID.

1:37:58 In Florida alone, the likelihood of a child dying

1:38:01 is 0.001%.

1:38:03 The numbers are proof that children statistically

1:38:06 are not in need of protection by any overstep of authority

1:38:08 from their school board.

1:38:10 Mask mandates in school should be a non-issue.

1:38:12 My question is at what point does it end?

1:38:14 Mask mandates on our children are just the beginning

1:38:16 of a much larger overstep of power.

1:38:19 This nonsense needs to end now.

1:38:21 Mask mandates on kids are an abuse of power.

1:38:23 It’s out of sheer ignorance that one would ignore the science

1:38:25 of how COVID affects children and still continue

1:38:28 to entertain these baseless mask mandates in school.

1:38:31 Mark my words, the government is waging a war

1:38:33 against our children and this disgusting attempt

1:38:36 at overreach of power will absolutely not be tolerated

1:38:39 by myself or the parents here today.

1:38:43 - Thank you.

1:38:43 Austin Bell.

1:38:52 - Thank you for allowing me to speak.

1:38:53 Good morning, I asked the fundamental question,

1:38:55 do masks reduce transmission in kids?

1:38:58 You’ve heard the data and actually the data

1:39:00 is very inconclusive at best at this time.

1:39:03 We don’t even know.

1:39:05 In contrast, there’s numerous studies highlighting

1:39:07 the developmental, emotional and medical risks

1:39:10 of masking children.

1:39:11 I respect the parents and the community members

1:39:14 that feel masking their children is the right decision

1:39:16 for them because guess what?

1:39:18 They’re their children.

1:39:20 Every one of us here who made the choice to be here today

1:39:22 has done so for the same reason.

1:39:24 We love and we wish to protect our children.

1:39:27 Let us all come together on that fact.

1:39:29 But the focus comes back to the debate over a mandate

1:39:32 that someone you know, that you, you know what’s best

1:39:36 for my children, that one size fits all.

1:39:39 Anthony Fauci himself said hopefully masks will temporarily,

1:39:43 be temporary and don’t have any lasting

1:39:45 negative consequences.

1:39:46 Maybe masks help and hopefully

1:39:48 there’s no long term consequences.

1:39:50 That’s not good enough.

1:39:52 - Thank you, sir.

1:39:55 All right, board members, we’re gonna go ahead

1:39:58 and take about a 10 minute recess

1:39:59 and then we will reconvene, okay?

1:40:17 (upbeat music)

1:40:47 (upbeat music continues)

1:55:17 (gavel bangs)

1:55:18 - All right, we are back in session.

1:55:20 Our next three speakers are going to be Elise Strobel,

1:55:23 Alyssa Bobbitt, and Nada Waldrop.

1:55:27 Elise?

1:55:40 - Hi, my name is Elise Strobel

1:55:41 and I’m here again to speak about the mask issue.

1:55:44 We have already voted on this issue before school started

1:55:47 so parents could have an answer.

1:55:49 Masks are unconstitutional

1:55:51 and everyone has the right to choose.

1:55:53 School deans can no longer evaluate classrooms

1:55:55 and do their jobs because they’re too busy

1:55:57 having to deal with the ridiculous quarantines.

1:56:00 Masks don’t protect anyone and I have the right to breathe.

1:56:03 School deans can no longer evaluate classrooms

1:56:05 and do their jobs because they’re too busy

1:56:07 having to deal with the ridiculous quarantines.

1:56:09 Masks don’t protect anyone and I have the right to breathe.

1:56:13 If you guys really cared about us,

1:56:15 students would tour, you guys would tour the schools

1:56:18 and see how it has affected us both mentally

1:56:20 and physically in so many ways.

1:56:22 What is a piece of cloth going to do

1:56:24 when millions of particles of the virus

1:56:25 can fit through one hole?

1:56:27 I believe in my immune system and staying healthy naturally.

1:56:30 I take vitamins and get vitamin D from the sun.

1:56:33 I will continue to fight and not comply.

1:56:36 House Bill 241 is the law, thank you.

1:56:39 - I’m Melissa Bovet and I’m here to speak again.

1:56:46 This is a flu.

1:56:47 Let me say that again.

1:56:49 This is a flu.

1:56:50 Why are we here again when we already voted

1:56:53 for masks to be optional?

1:56:54 This is unconstitutional for us to be wearing

1:56:57 a piece of cloth that doesn’t do anything to us.

1:56:59 When we were in school last year, wearing a mask,

1:57:02 I was more focused on breathing than learning.

1:57:04 There were kids passing out just from wearing one.

1:57:07 That is not healthy at all and these people really think

1:57:10 that wearing a mask is healthy, but it’s not.

1:57:12 If people wanna wear a mask, they can, but I choose not to.

1:57:15 So why can’t we just make this mask thing optional?

1:57:18 Stop bringing these meetings back

1:57:19 when we already voted optional.

1:57:21 If they make the mask mandate where we have to wear a mask,

1:57:24 I will not be attending school and be doing FLVS

1:57:27 because I cannot breathe.

1:57:29 This is against the law.

1:57:31 Stop quarantining healthy students.

1:57:33 It is taking away our education.

1:57:34 Stop taking away our education.

1:57:36 Thank you.

1:57:37 - Thanks, Alyssa.

1:57:39 Nada, and then after that, we have Barbara Schulfeld,

1:57:42 June Townsend, and then Lisa Rohoff.

1:57:47 - Morning.

1:57:48 I’m here today on behalf of all the parents

1:57:49 who are struggling with this ongoing debate.

1:57:52 Mask mandates have proven ineffective.

1:57:54 In Germany, my home country, they implemented a law

1:57:57 that you were only allowed to wear N95 masks nationwide.

1:58:00 Even then, it has proven ineffective.

1:58:03 But it’s obvious that we are not here

1:58:04 to discuss true science.

1:58:06 So instead, it comes down, if it comes down to a matter

1:58:09 of standing up for the truth and our liberties,

1:58:11 to all of you parents, you are not alone

1:58:14 and you have our support.

1:58:15 We know that this is only the beginning

1:58:17 and we have to make a stand now.

1:58:19 My husband is a pastor of a local church

1:58:22 and we are going to open up our church facilities

1:58:24 to accommodate any of your kids that would like to study

1:58:27 in a mask-free environment or offer other support.

1:58:30 Parents, it’s time to unite and stand up for the truth.

1:58:33 Please consider the long-term repercussions

1:58:35 of allowing your kids to be forced to wear a mask all day.

1:58:38 People, it’s force.

1:58:40 What are we teaching our children?

1:58:42 Thank you, thank you. (audience applauding)

1:58:45 - Barbara Schoolfield.

1:58:53 - I’m Lynn Schoolfield, or Barbara, I go by Lynn.

1:58:56 You all have heard so much.

1:58:57 It’s against the law what you’re trying to do.

1:59:00 Masks don’t work and that’s a fact.

1:59:03 All you have to do is look at the Israeli study

1:59:06 and see when they took masks off, COVID went down.

1:59:10 When they went up, it skyrocketed.

1:59:12 End of question.

1:59:14 But the bottom line is, what I’m here to say,

1:59:16 it’s parents’ rights.

1:59:18 It’s parents’ rights that you’re taking away by doing this.

1:59:21 You are not in charge of the parents.

1:59:23 The parents are in charge of their children.

1:59:25 You’re not in charge of the children.

1:59:27 It is a matter of choice.

1:59:29 It’s my body, it’s your body.

1:59:30 If you wanna wear a mask and breathe in carbon dioxide

1:59:35 at extremely dangerous levels, your choice.

1:59:38 But it should be your choice.

1:59:41 It’s my choice to breathe freely.

1:59:44 - Thank you.

1:59:46 June Townsend.

1:59:49 After June, we have Lisa, then Michelle McCarthy,

1:59:53 and then Alicia Smo.

1:59:57 - Good morning, my name is June Townsend.

1:59:59 I’m here to support all the parents

2:00:00 who have the God-given right and duty

2:00:04 to direct their child’s education

2:00:06 and their physical, mental, and spiritual well-being.

2:00:09 I am encouraging the parents to withdraw your child

2:00:12 from the public school system

2:00:13 and consider alternative schooling, such as home education.

2:00:17 No one is better fit to raise your child as you are.

2:00:22 Send the school board a message

2:00:23 that you are in control of your child

2:00:26 and that you have the power to reduce their funding.

2:00:29 Remind them that they are elected to serve you.

2:00:33 There’s an abundance of resources and support

2:00:35 in our community to help you home educate.

2:00:38 All you need is the will to be willing.

2:00:40 The rewards far outweigh the work

2:00:43 and struggles and sacrifices you make.

2:00:46 You can never go wrong in investing in your child.

2:00:49 You will reap freedom and blessing.

2:00:51 Thank you.

2:00:52 - Thank you.

2:00:54 Lisa.

2:00:59 - Hello, I’m Lisa Rohax, and I’m here today

2:01:01 to stand up for the rights of American citizens.

2:01:04 A mask is a medical device,

2:01:06 and as such, it cannot be mandated

2:01:08 that an American citizen wear a medical device

2:01:11 that has and has variety of risks,

2:01:16 risks like psychological, pneumonia, skin issues.

2:01:19 Anytime there is a risk to a device,

2:01:22 medical procedure, medication, there must be a choice.

2:01:27 So if parents choose to have their child mask,

2:01:30 it’s their choice, although personally,

2:01:32 I believe it is child abuse.

2:01:33 The mask does not even begin to slow down the virus.

2:01:37 It doesn’t protect you or others.

2:01:40 Rather, it is a psychological tool for control.

2:01:45 It has such negative psychological consequences

2:01:49 that a child psychiatrist are seeing

2:01:51 a uptick of many children coming in for psychological issues.

2:01:57 Look up Galatians chapter five.

2:01:59 - Thank you.

2:02:02 Michelle McCarthy.

2:02:03 After Michelle, we have Alicia Smith,

2:02:05 Jennifer Thayer, and then Dana Richardson.

2:02:10 - Good morning.

2:02:11 For the Florida Parents Bill of Rights

2:02:13 that was passed through the House and the Senate

2:02:15 this spring and then signed into law by Governor DeSantis,

2:02:18 you have no authority to mandate masks.

2:02:21 Parents, I have spent hours at meetings

2:02:23 such as this battling the system,

2:02:25 but the system is accomplishing what it was created to do.

2:02:28 Separate you from your children,

2:02:31 gain authority over you, and indoctrinate them.

2:02:34 I’ve seen the message.

2:02:36 We do not co-parent with the government.

2:02:38 But even if you win this mask battle, you are co-parenting.

2:02:43 The masks are just the tip of the iceberg.

2:02:45 If you want true liberty for you and your children,

2:02:48 homeschool them.

2:02:49 11 years ago, we pulled our children out of school

2:02:51 and two have since graduated.

2:02:53 Last year, you experienced what I would call crisis schooling.

2:02:57 Spending eight hours a day in front of a computer

2:02:59 with little to no socialization is not homeschooling.

2:03:04 Homeschooling is easy in Florida,

2:03:05 and myself and others are happy to help you

2:03:07 have the complete authority and freedom over your families.

2:03:10 It’s worth the sacrifice.

2:03:12 - Thank you.

2:03:13 Alicia Smith.

2:03:20 - As a veteran who fought for the freedom of this country,

2:03:23 I’m here to continue to fight for freedom,

2:03:25 this time for freedom for our children’s medical right.

2:03:28 As parents, God gave us the responsibility

2:03:30 to take care of our children and advocate for them.

2:03:33 I’m here today to be a voice for my children

2:03:36 and every other child who wants the right

2:03:38 to breathe freely every day,

2:03:40 the right to their medical freedom,

2:03:41 the right not to have a device preventing them

2:03:43 from getting the oxygen they need

2:03:45 for their brains to think clearly, the right to choose.

2:03:48 I ask you to consider our children’s future.

2:03:50 We have no idea the long-term effects of mask usage

2:03:54 on their physical and mental health.

2:03:57 Are we willing to take the risk of permanent damage

2:03:59 to the future of this country over a virus

2:04:01 with virtually 100% survival rate in children?

2:04:05 Parents, if this mask mandate is passed

2:04:07 and you are not willing to sacrifice your child’s future,

2:04:10 you have a choice.

2:04:10 You can bring your child home and educate them

2:04:12 in an environment where they will breathe and think freely.

2:04:15 I am willing to provide resources and support

2:04:17 to anyone who chooses to make that decision.

2:04:20 Thank you. - Thank you.

2:04:23 - Jennifer Thayer.

2:04:30 - Good morning.

2:04:31 Thank you for granting another hearing from the community

2:04:34 and parents from whom you serve.

2:04:37 It is apparent that you as a board are struggling

2:04:40 to stand by a decision regarding a mask mandate

2:04:43 for the children in the public school.

2:04:45 That’s understandable.

2:04:47 Emotions are running high.

2:04:49 But this need not be such an emotional decision.

2:04:53 If you maintain your role for which you were elected,

2:04:56 you can take the emotions out of it.

2:04:59 You were not elected to be my children’s parent

2:05:01 nor their healthcare professional.

2:05:04 You should not and do not have the authority.

2:05:07 You don’t have the authority to force my child

2:05:09 to wear a medical device.

2:05:11 This board should be grateful you have a choice,

2:05:14 something that is not an option

2:05:17 for many other school boards across the nation.

2:05:19 I come from such a state as did one of your other speakers.

2:05:23 You need to give us a choice.

2:05:25 You have a choice with your children

2:05:26 and we need a choice as well.

2:05:29 - Thanks.

2:05:30 Dana Richardson.

2:05:31 After Dana, we have Kaylena O’Connor, Lexi Delaney,

2:05:34 and then Katie Delaney.

2:05:38 - I have a third grader and kindergartener

2:05:40 at Manatee Elementary.

2:05:41 My third grader had significant anxiety

2:05:43 the first two weeks of school,

2:05:45 so much so that he missed two and a half days

2:05:47 due to anxiety-induced stomach aches.

2:05:50 He was injured last Thursday

2:05:51 and went to urgent care for x-rays where he wore a mask.

2:05:54 During the brief time we were there,

2:05:56 he complained repeatedly that he could not breathe.

2:05:59 Forcing my anxiety-prone six-year-old,

2:06:01 or any child for that matter,

2:06:03 to wear a mask that inhibits proper breathing

2:06:08 is cruel and unacceptable.

2:06:10 We must consider the complete wellbeing of our children,

2:06:12 including social, emotional, and physical health.

2:06:16 A mandatory mask mandate

2:06:17 not only violates Parental Bill of Rights,

2:06:19 it also disregards the wellbeing of children

2:06:22 who cannot wear a mask for extended periods of time,

2:06:26 such as my son.

2:06:28 Please consider the health and safety of all children

2:06:30 and keep masks voluntary in schools.

2:06:33 Remember that a truly healthy society

2:06:36 is one that empowers individuals with freedom and choice.

2:06:39 - Thank you.

2:06:41 Kaylena O’Connor.

2:06:48 - Hello, my name is Kaylena.

2:06:50 I am the mother of three children

2:06:51 attending elementary school here in Brevard County.

2:06:53 Today I’m here to oppose the mandating of masks in schools

2:06:56 and to share an incident that occurred last year

2:06:59 under a mask mandate.

2:07:00 This past April, I dropped my daughter,

2:07:03 who is nine, off in the car loop.

2:07:05 A teacher who was at the school’s front gate

2:07:07 yelled at her for not having a mask.

2:07:09 She respectfully told him she was going to the office

2:07:11 to get one.

2:07:12 He then proceeded to follow her into the office

2:07:15 and then followed her closely to the cafeteria,

2:07:17 where he sat down next to her, stared at her.

2:07:19 When another teacher who witnessed this intervened,

2:07:22 he left the cafeteria,

2:07:23 where he waited outside for my daughter to leave

2:07:25 and then followed her to her classroom,

2:07:27 rummaged through her desk,

2:07:28 and yelled at her in front of her class

2:07:29 to the point where she was in tears.

2:07:31 He is still employed as an activity teacher.

2:07:33 Apparently, bullying, harassment,

2:07:35 and intimidation of students

2:07:36 is not taken seriously by Brevard County schools.

2:07:39 My daughter has suffered emotionally and mentally

2:07:41 because of her horrific behavior over a mask.

2:07:44 I hope you guys keep it optional.

2:07:49 - Lexi Delaney, and then after Lexi,

2:07:51 we have Katie Delaney, Susan Richards, and then Ryan.

2:07:57 And Michael, Lexi.

2:08:00 - Civics, I learned that if I want things to change,

2:08:03 I need to go to and speak up at civic meetings.

2:08:07 Which brings me to my point,

2:08:08 that masks do not slow the spread of COVID.

2:08:10 Masks are distracting and are hard to breathe in.

2:08:13 I will not wear a mask in school.

2:08:15 You are abusing your power.

2:08:17 Masks are full of germs and bacteria.

2:08:19 When people touch their mask or set their masks down,

2:08:22 the germs spread.

2:08:23 Last year, I got bullied from teachers and students

2:08:26 because I could not breathe and I could not focus.

2:08:29 So not only could I not breathe,

2:08:31 but I also had to deal with being a target for bullies.

2:08:34 This is not your right to impose this mandate.

2:08:36 Medical decisions are up to my parents.

2:08:38 Again, I will not wear a mask at school.

2:08:40 You are abusing your power.

2:08:42 - Thanks, Lexi.

2:08:48 - That was my awesome daughter, by the way.

2:08:51 I will not mask my children.

2:08:54 If you vote to impose a mask mandate,

2:08:56 you are violating the law.

2:08:59 HB241, I know you all know it by now.

2:09:04 That states parents are in charge

2:09:07 of their minor children’s medical decisions, not you all.

2:09:11 I sent all of your data from Stephen Petty.

2:09:14 He is not a doctor.

2:09:16 He is a mask expert who trains doctors.

2:09:20 He said he is one of the leading mask experts

2:09:25 in our country.

2:09:26 And he said that masks, even N95 masks,

2:09:30 do not stop the spread of COVID.

2:09:33 This is a mask expert.

2:09:35 The person who is training doctors.

2:09:39 I will not comply.

2:09:40 My children will not go to school with a mask on.

2:09:44 Thank you.

2:09:45 - Thank you.

2:09:48 Susan Richards.

2:09:49 (audience applauding)

2:09:52 - My name is Susan Richards.

2:09:54 I have a daughter at Vera High School,

2:09:56 and I just wanted to talk about masks, like everybody else.

2:10:00 I went to a store recently and took pictures

2:10:03 of the mask packages.

2:10:05 The little paper ones that a lot of the kids wear to school

2:10:07 so they can breathe a little better.

2:10:09 Look at this.

2:10:10 Made in China, warning, cancer and reproductive harm.

2:10:16 Next one.

2:10:17 This is not a medical grade mask

2:10:19 and is not intended as a replacement

2:10:21 for medical grade personal protective equipment

2:10:25 or other recommendations to stop the spread of COVID.

2:10:31 A little known study that was buried,

2:10:33 I emailed it before the last vote,

2:10:36 from the CDC, September 20th, 2020, sorry.

2:10:42 Anyway, they did a survey of COVID patients.

2:10:47 Wouldn’t know what happened.

2:10:50 70.6% of those people said they always wore a mask.

2:10:56 - Ryan.

2:11:02 - Thank you, Chairman.

2:11:03 I’m a Florida native that spent the first 21 years

2:11:05 of my life in the Sunshine State,

2:11:06 and then spent another 21 years

2:11:08 as an active duty army officer

2:11:10 protecting my fellow American civil liberties.

2:11:12 I understand what it means to fight for what you believe in.

2:11:15 That’s why I’m here today.

2:11:16 I oppose the mask mandate.

2:11:18 My wife and I chose to raise our three kids

2:11:20 in the Brevard County, Brevard Public Schools

2:11:22 in District Three.

2:11:24 I love our state and community

2:11:25 because it is one of the few locations

2:11:27 that allow for personal freedoms

2:11:29 to raise my family as we see fit.

2:11:31 Masks don’t work,

2:11:33 quarantine protocols do more harm than good,

2:11:35 and children are suffering from the distractions

2:11:37 of the COVID-related activities.

2:11:39 The CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics data

2:11:43 currently states the mortality rate

2:11:44 is somewhere near 0.0001 and 0.03%.

2:11:49 That’s not even in the top 10.

2:11:51 What are we afraid of?

2:11:53 I support a parent’s right to manage their kid’s education

2:11:56 and the environment in which it is provided.

2:11:58 Please do not New York or California my Florida.

2:12:02 (audience applauding)

2:12:04 - Michael Stone, and after Michael,

2:12:06 we have Crystal Lukens, Julia Anton, Aaron Davison.

2:12:13 - Hello, my name is Michael Stone.

2:12:14 I’m a MIMI, and it’s hard to follow an act like that.

2:12:18 But I’d like to know who was the swing vote

2:12:22 for all this meeting today?

2:12:25 It was three, it’s been three to two.

2:12:27 I know you won’t answer.

2:12:29 Who was sitting with the Secretary of Agricultural Freed?

2:12:32 Right?

2:12:34 Is that right?

2:12:35 I’m all burnout over this stuff, but.

2:12:38 Governor DeSantis, who happens to be running

2:12:40 against Governor DeSantis,

2:12:43 who summarily jumped up and texted out

2:12:47 to the members of the school board here

2:12:49 as recounted in a newspaper article.

2:12:52 Yep.

2:12:53 So what I’d like to ask is if you,

2:12:57 as a school board today, pass the mask mandate

2:13:01 and override the will of the people,

2:13:04 will you be as quick to call another meeting

2:13:07 when this judge’s judgment is overturned on appeal?

2:13:12 Will you call us back for another?

2:13:14 Is this gonna go on and on?

2:13:15 - Thanks, Michael.

2:13:16 We appreciate you joining us this morning.

2:13:19 Krista Lukens?

2:13:26 - Hi, my name is Krista Lukens.

2:13:31 Hello?

2:13:32 Okay, hi, I’m Krista Lukens.

2:13:36 It’s okay.

2:13:38 I don’t have a whole lot to say

2:13:40 other than there’s one thing that is very apparent

2:13:43 when I hear most of the people with masks speaking,

2:13:46 and it’s the amount of fear that drives them.

2:13:49 And I want you all to understand something,

2:13:51 that your fear does not trump my rights.

2:13:54 And as a parent, it is my job,

2:13:57 my job to protect my student,

2:14:00 to seek medical care when he needs it,

2:14:03 not yours or anybody else’s.

2:14:05 He will not wear a mask ever again to school.

2:14:08 He will be pulled from your school district

2:14:11 if you mandate a mask.

2:14:13 We are tired, we are fed up,

2:14:15 and we are not taking it anymore.

2:14:17 Our voices will be heard.

2:14:19 The silent majority is done being silent.

2:14:22 You guys will lose your jobs if you don’t listen to us.

2:14:25 - Thank you.

2:14:26 (audience cheering)

2:14:29 Audience members, I’m going to say it one more time.

2:14:33 As I’m calling people’s names,

2:14:35 they can’t hear me because of the noise that you’re making.

2:14:38 So if you would like to remain in the boardroom,

2:14:41 please stop so we can get through the speakers

2:14:43 and get to the business of the day, okay?

2:14:46 Julia Anton, after Julia, we have Aaron Davison,

2:14:50 Michelle Martin, and then Greg Eight.

2:14:52 Julia?

2:14:55 - My, my, my, my, me, me, me, me.

2:14:57 It’s all about me, me, me, me.

2:15:00 When a parent is deciding what’s best for his child,

2:15:02 that parent doesn’t get to decide to put the child

2:15:05 behind the wheel of a Mack truck,

2:15:08 put the gas down on full bore,

2:15:10 and send that Mack truck barreling down the highway

2:15:12 to kill people.

2:15:14 When a parent is deciding what’s best–

2:15:16 - Ma’am, if you could make sure

2:15:18 you’re talking into the mic for me, okay?

2:15:19 - I’m sorry?

2:15:20 - Make sure you’re talking into the mic

2:15:21 and directed toward us.

2:15:22 - When a parent is making decisions for his kids,

2:15:23 he doesn’t get to decide to build a weenie roast

2:15:26 in front of the gas pumps at the local Chevron station.

2:15:29 There are limits in the decisions,

2:15:32 what you can decide and whom you can hurt.

2:15:34 - Ma’am, keep it focused this way.

2:15:35 - Your decisions that affect other people are not limitless.

2:15:41 School board, it’s your job to provide a safe workplace

2:15:44 that meets OSHA standards.

2:15:46 School board, it’s your job to provide safe schools.

2:15:50 School board, it is your job to not be intimidated

2:15:52 by loud chants, mean threats.

2:15:56 - Thank you, we appreciate you joining us today.

2:15:59 Erin Davison.

2:16:02 - Erin Davison from District 3.

2:16:04 During the discussion last week,

2:16:06 you kindly read us the DOH’s Emergency Rule 64DER 21-12.

2:16:10 You stated you were bound by this policy.

2:16:13 Section 1D reads, “Students may wear a mask

2:16:15 “or facial coverings, however, the school must allow

2:16:19 “for a parent or legal guardian of the student to opt out.

2:16:23 “The DOH rule has not changed since our last meeting.

2:16:26 “Your proposed masking policy is not in compliance

2:16:29 “with the DOH or DOE as you do not allow

2:16:32 “for parental opt out.

2:16:33 “I trust you will continue to abide

2:16:35 “by the emergency rulings.

2:16:36 “You also made it abundantly clear

2:16:38 “that our school administrators are overwhelmed

2:16:40 “with quarantining and can’t do their jobs.

2:16:43 “Why would you add policing face masks to their job?

2:16:48 “You can’t make up a new policy based off

2:16:50 “of a judge’s ruling that is not in effect.

2:16:53 “He hasn’t even signed the order.

2:16:55 “Remember, your standards have not changed

2:16:57 “since your initial decision.

2:16:59 “Keep masks optional.”

2:17:00 - Thank you.

2:17:02 Michelle Martin.

2:17:03 After Michelle, we have Greg H., Todd Adams,

2:17:06 and then Christina Foreman.

2:17:08 Michelle.

2:17:09 - Good morning.

2:17:10 I’m from District 3, and against a mask mandate,

2:17:13 voting for a mask mandate will no doubt be illegal

2:17:16 as at the time of this writing,

2:17:18 no formal written ruling had been signed by the judge.

2:17:21 However, Governor DeSantis just announced a few moments ago

2:17:25 that he is appealing,

2:17:26 and it has a good chance of being overturned.

2:17:28 I implore you to vote no to a mask mandate.

2:17:31 Our children have been through enough

2:17:33 environmental-induced trauma,

2:17:35 and we certainly don’t need to further that

2:17:37 with back-and-forth inconsistent policies

2:17:40 sending mixed messages to our children.

2:17:42 Additionally, if a mask mandate is instituted,

2:17:45 you’re required in accordance with DOH 64DER 21-12

2:17:50 to provide parents with a non-medical opt-out.

2:17:54 You expect our children to follow policies, rules, and laws,

2:17:58 yet here you are trying to mandate one that is illegal.

2:18:02 Thank you.

2:18:02 - Thank you.

2:18:04 Greg H.?

2:18:11 - You guys know we’re the grown-ups, right?

2:18:13 What kind of example are we setting

2:18:14 with impassioned, emotionally unstable political rants

2:18:17 in hopes of getting three minutes of viral fame on TikTok?

2:18:20 You think my decision to send my child to school

2:18:22 without covering his face holes

2:18:24 based on statistical analysis,

2:18:25 two years’ worth of data regarding biological responses,

2:18:28 pulmonary damage caused by masks,

2:18:30 or the permanent neurological damage

2:18:32 caused by inciting fear in kids,

2:18:34 will suddenly change because some mentally ill woman

2:18:36 yelled at a child outside this meeting this morning,

2:18:38 saying her mother doesn’t love her

2:18:39 because she doesn’t force her to wear a mask?

2:18:41 No, I’m a rational grown man

2:18:43 who won’t acquiesce to the political rantings

2:18:46 of a small but very loud minority of wokesters

2:18:48 who use the word science a lot,

2:18:50 but apply none in their over-emotional tirades.

2:18:52 Let’s be adults and teach children

2:18:54 to be reasonable, critical thinkers.

2:18:56 If we care about our kids,

2:18:57 let’s start with the cafeteria and the gym

2:18:58 rather than covering their airways.

2:19:00 Obesity is the single greatest factor

2:19:02 determining the severity of all illnesses.

2:19:04 Let’s get back to why we’re here, educating our kids.

2:19:07 I love our teachers

2:19:08 and don’t wanna pull my child out of school,

2:19:09 but I won’t comply with a mask mandate, thank you.

2:19:11 - Thanks Greg.

2:19:13 Todd Adams, after Todd, we have Christina Foreman,

2:19:16 Dominique Nichols, and Laura Jean Daley.

2:19:20 Todd?

2:19:21 - Yes, I’m Todd Adams, I’m a proud husband

2:19:24 and father of two kids in the elementary school,

2:19:27 Air Force veteran, Christian, proud business owner in here.

2:19:32 I was forced to shut down for no reason whatsoever.

2:19:35 Now I’m forcing my kids to wear a mask.

2:19:38 This is ridiculous.

2:19:39 I’m obviously standing against this,

2:19:41 it’s a political mask mandate.

2:19:43 I would like to know, are you getting a paycheck

2:19:45 to vote the way you do?

2:19:46 Let’s look into that.

2:19:48 For any of you BPS reps who are in support of this mask,

2:19:52 does your underwear stop flagellant?

2:19:54 This isn’t to be funny.

2:19:56 It’s the same as this mask not stopping the COVID virus.

2:20:00 On March 8th of this year, the CDC reported

2:20:04 that mask mandates contribute to less than 2% decrease

2:20:08 in COVID cases’ growth after 100 days.

2:20:12 Concerned independent parents in Florida sent their mask

2:20:15 to the University of Florida’s lab.

2:20:17 There was 21 different pathogenic bacteria on that mask,

2:20:21 including strep throat–

2:20:22 - Thank you, we appreciate you joining us this morning.

2:20:26 Christina Foreman.

2:20:34 Going once, going twice.

2:20:38 All right, Dominique Nichols.

2:20:44 - I have two daughters.

2:20:46 I have an eighth grader and a fifth grader.

2:20:47 - Hold on one second.

2:20:51 Go ahead.

2:20:52 - Thank you.

2:20:53 I have two daughters, an eighth grade and a fifth grader.

2:20:55 Last year they wore their masks, they complied,

2:20:58 they did everything they could.

2:21:00 My fifth grader was in fourth grade.

2:21:02 She had sores break out around her mouth.

2:21:05 She, right under her nose, it was very painful

2:21:08 and it made her very embarrassed and upset.

2:21:10 There’s no need for it.

2:21:12 They both wear glasses.

2:21:13 Their glasses would fog up during the day.

2:21:16 They can’t see.

2:21:18 For what?

2:21:19 They’re pissed.

2:21:21 They’re very angry that they’re going through all of this

2:21:25 and there’s not a reason.

2:21:26 The science changes or people say the science changes

2:21:29 every day and here they are, they can’t see the board,

2:21:31 they can’t participate, they have to scream

2:21:33 in order to be heard and they’ve had enough.

2:21:38 They’ve asked to be pulled out of school

2:21:40 and go to a private school or be homeschooled

2:21:44 because they can’t do it anymore.

2:21:46 They want to be there with the school but they can’t.

2:21:50 - Thank you.

2:21:52 All right, next we have Laura Jean Daley.

2:21:53 After that we have Matthew Dolly, Ashton Galzinis

2:21:56 and then Julie O’Neil.

2:21:58 Laura Jean.

2:22:01 - Hi, my name is Laura Jean Daley

2:22:03 and my kids go to Surfside Elementary School

2:22:05 and I’m here to advocate against the mask mandate.

2:22:08 According to the New York Magazine,

2:22:10 the decision to mask students carries with it

2:22:12 potential academic and social harms for children

2:22:15 and may lack clear benefit.

2:22:16 According to Lloyd Fisher, who is the president

2:22:19 of the Massachusetts Chapter of American Academy

2:22:22 of Pediatrics, he said it is important for children

2:22:25 to see facial expressions of their peers

2:22:27 and the adults around them in order to learn social cues

2:22:30 and understand how to read emotions.

2:22:33 There was a study done by 11 doctors,

2:22:35 3,000 masked and 3,000 unmasked.

2:22:38 The difference of the infection rate was 0.03%.

2:22:41 We all know that the cloth masks

2:22:43 that kids wear to schools do not work.

2:22:45 Possibly the N95 masks work but kids

2:22:48 are not going to wear those.

2:22:49 Finally, the school board is not responsible

2:22:52 for personal healthcare decisions.

2:22:54 It is our job, it is our right, not yours.

2:22:57 So please stop, thank you.

2:22:59 - Thank you, Matthew Dolly.

2:23:03 (audio cuts out)

2:23:08 - Hello, it’s happening again.

2:23:11 A couple things I need to say.

2:23:13 I have not seen on the news a refrigerator truck

2:23:16 full of deceased pediatrics in central Florida anywhere.

2:23:19 And then also, you know, has anybody worked in a hospital?

2:23:24 Pre-COVID knows intensive care units

2:23:26 have always been at max capacity.

2:23:29 Hospitals get compensated when their ICUs are full.

2:23:32 So stop clobbering us with that, please.

2:23:35 And you know what, I’m not even gonna argue anymore

2:23:37 about pro or con or whatever.

2:23:38 This comes down to a basic fact.

2:23:41 And the fact is nobody has the right

2:23:43 to mandate a medical device on myself or my family

2:23:47 because you have to have what we call consent.

2:23:49 Every person in here is medically trained,

2:23:51 knows you cannot touch a patient

2:23:53 unless they give you consent, all right?

2:23:56 My family is not consenting to a mask mandate.

2:23:59 You can mandate all you want.

2:24:01 We’re not wearing it, good luck.

2:24:04 - Thank you.

2:24:07 Ashton, and then after Ashton, we have Julie O’Neill,

2:24:11 Joel Tully, and then Carly Smith.

2:24:16 - Hi, my name is Ashley Gelsinis,

2:24:18 and I’ve spoken many times at these meetings.

2:24:22 It’s nice that many parents here have the privilege

2:24:24 to pull their kids from BPS

2:24:26 because things are not going their way,

2:24:27 but that’s not a reality for many families in our district.

2:24:30 Refusing to mandate masks,

2:24:32 putting children whose parents work full-time

2:24:34 and don’t have any other option or position

2:24:38 to send their kids to school with the simplest protection.

2:24:40 My kids six and nine wear masks properly

2:24:42 because we’ve talked about the reasons we wear them.

2:24:45 We wear them to protect my mother

2:24:47 who teaches kindergarten in BPS with colon cancer,

2:24:51 for their cousin who’s in BPS

2:24:52 with a compromised immune system,

2:24:55 and for other family and friends who cannot be vaccinated.

2:24:59 Religious and political views do not belong here.

2:25:02 This is about our community and our kids,

2:25:05 and our kids, that our kids leave and go into daily.

2:25:09 Look at the dashboard, look at your staff shortages,

2:25:12 realize that you don’t have the capacity

2:25:15 to keep going the way that you’re going.

2:25:17 - Thank you.

2:25:19 Julie O’Neill.

2:25:21 - You know what, let’s get rid of this woman here.

2:25:23 - Who is it that’s making noise on that side?

2:25:27 You know?

2:25:28 I don’t know.

2:25:32 - I’m a parent at Melbourne High School.

2:25:34 I am here to ask you to vote yes for a mask mandate

2:25:37 with a medical opt-out only.

2:25:39 Our children, teachers, and community need you to step up.

2:25:42 Stop pretending that our students and staff being sick

2:25:44 is none of your concern.

2:25:46 It is your job to write a safe learning

2:25:47 and working environment for students and staff.

2:25:50 There are two petitions circulating right now.

2:25:52 The one in favor of mask mandates has over 4,200 signatures.

2:25:55 The one in opposition has just over 1,900 signatures.

2:25:59 The numbers speak for themselves.

2:26:00 More parents want mask mandates.

2:26:02 According to the COVID dashboard,

2:26:04 we have over 3,000 positive cases this year

2:26:07 in less than a month of school.

2:26:08 In the most recent three-day period reported,

2:26:11 there were 784 positive cases.

2:26:14 Compared to last year at this time,

2:26:15 there were 30 cases throughout all the schools.

2:26:18 The numbers speak for themselves.

2:26:19 Do your job, protect our students and staff,

2:26:21 and mandate masks.

2:26:23 I do have a copy of the petition.

2:26:24 Where can I give this to?

2:26:26 - You can give it to the,

2:26:28 just leave it there on the table and we’ll get it.

2:26:34 Did we locate the phone that was making noise?

2:26:37 Has that been resolved?

2:26:42 All right, Joel Tooley.

2:26:46 - I come in support of universal mask-wearing as a parent

2:26:51 and as a pastor of students at Sable Elementary,

2:26:55 University Park Elementary, Central, Hoover,

2:26:57 and Stone Middle Schools, Melbourne High School,

2:27:00 Palm Bay Magnet High School, Meadow Lane,

2:27:02 Edgewood, and Idiolana.

2:27:05 I also support parents who choose to pull their kids

2:27:08 out of BPS due to universal mask-wearing.

2:27:12 That’s a great use of their parental rights,

2:27:13 and I will certainly help reduce the spread of COVID.

2:27:17 I caution non-experts who misuse science as a pastor.

2:27:22 I also caution people who misuse scriptures.

2:27:26 Someone used the scripture from 2 Timothy 1.7,

2:27:29 for God did not give us a spirit of fear,

2:27:32 humidity, or cowardice,

2:27:33 but rather a spirit of power and of love

2:27:36 and of self-discipline.

2:27:38 While humans tend to be motivated by fear today,

2:27:40 I sincerely pray for each one of you,

2:27:42 and I urge you to use your power to govern by love

2:27:45 for those who are most vulnerable in our community.

2:27:47 - Thanks, Paul.

2:27:49 Carly Smith, and then after Carly Smith,

2:27:51 we have Gerard Graff, Harry Hart,

2:27:55 and Emily Lankersdorfern.

2:28:01 Give me one second, Carly.

2:28:03 Sorry.

2:28:06 Go right ahead.

2:28:12 - I have two children at Surfside Elementary,

2:28:14 and I just wanna, we were here 20 days ago

2:28:17 talking about this exact same thing,

2:28:19 and really nothing has changed.

2:28:21 The DOH hasn’t changed,

2:28:23 the Department of Education hasn’t changed.

2:28:25 There’s a judge ruling that hasn’t been signed into law.

2:28:28 I know that that’s been said,

2:28:29 but I believe it was used by one of you.

2:28:32 The seesaw that’s going on with our children’s emotions

2:28:35 is unacceptable, and as a mother who,

2:28:38 God gave me these two little boys

2:28:40 to protect their hearts and their minds,

2:28:41 and this is confusing for them to go back and forth.

2:28:44 So I’m just advocating that you guys would please

2:28:46 just take a beat and let’s see where this ends up,

2:28:50 because children are not dying.

2:28:51 I don’t use words like so so many people are sick,

2:28:54 and so so many this.

2:28:56 There’s facts that have been stated here by our side,

2:28:58 and they’re legitimate facts,

2:29:00 and our children are not wanting to wear these masks.

2:29:03 If you’re in the schools, you’ll see that.

2:29:05 That’s all, thank you.

2:29:06 - Thank you.

2:29:09 Gerard Graff.

2:29:15 - How’s everyone doing today?

2:29:17 I’m just a father of four young under five-year-old kids.

2:29:23 Picked up my family, moved from New Jersey

2:29:25 to Florida in July.

2:29:28 Moved to Merritt Island, thought it was a great district,

2:29:31 did a lot of research on Brevard Public Schools,

2:29:34 and we’re very excited about being here.

2:29:37 Some of the observations from New Jersey was

2:29:39 that when my daughter went to school,

2:29:41 she had a wet mask all the time.

2:29:44 Her speech was very delayed,

2:29:46 and now we’ve noticed in the last two weeks,

2:29:48 by seeing the mouth and the movements,

2:29:51 seeing that the speech has cleared up.

2:29:55 I don’t envy your position.

2:29:56 It’s a tough job that you guys have today, no question,

2:30:00 but I do envy your power in making this decision.

2:30:04 Five people decide the fate of 73,524 students.

2:30:09 Why not let those students and families make their decisions

2:30:12 that they deem appropriate?

2:30:14 I hope you guys allow everyone to make a choice.

2:30:18 - Terry.

2:30:26 - Hey, thank you.

2:30:27 My name is Terry Hart.

2:30:28 Boy, being the 92nd speaker, or 96th speaker,

2:30:32 pretty much everything has been said already.

2:30:34 So I’m not gonna go into statistics or arguments

2:30:38 because everything’s been said.

2:30:43 Then we kind of know where you guys stand.

2:30:45 Two of you are for it, two of you are against it,

2:30:48 one’s petered.

2:30:50 So to the one who is kind of going back and forth,

2:30:54 I will just plead with you.

2:30:58 The governor can’t threaten you anymore.

2:31:01 He’s shut down.

2:31:03 Please don’t, you know, so put that aside.

2:31:06 Please keep our kids safe.

2:31:09 Keep our community safe.

2:31:13 We don’t want our kids in quarantine.

2:31:15 Quarantines will go way down once masks are on

2:31:19 ‘cause the virus will stop spreading.

2:31:22 Please, please, please.

2:31:26 Thank you.

2:31:27 - Thank you.

2:31:28 Emily, and then after Emily, we have Dakota Farr,

2:31:31 Jennifer Lenderman, and Mary Hilbert.

2:31:36 - Hello.

2:31:38 So I, like a lot of parents,

2:31:41 don’t start off child-rearing knowing everything.

2:31:43 And so when I found out I was pregnant

2:31:45 with my little daughter,

2:31:46 I immediately began reading a lot of psychology books

2:31:49 and child-rearing books.

2:31:50 And ones that stood out to me the most

2:31:52 was positive discipline books.

2:31:53 I really loved them.

2:31:55 And when restrictions started coming on with the masks,

2:31:59 I, you know, we messed up.

2:32:00 We wanted to do the right thing and protect others.

2:32:02 And then it just sort of continued on

2:32:04 and there was no end in sight.

2:32:06 And then I started wondering

2:32:07 at the psychological effects on my child.

2:32:10 And each time I go and refer back to these books,

2:32:12 I can’t help but think how wrong it is

2:32:14 to force kids to wear a mask for several hours a day.

2:32:17 We’re losing far more lessons

2:32:19 on how they should interact socially.

2:32:21 The smiles, the laughs,

2:32:23 how to see their teacher react

2:32:25 when a hard situation comes up, how to stay calm,

2:32:27 what we’re doing here, how we interact in a civil society,

2:32:30 even when we disagree.

2:32:31 So please choose to keep masks optional.

2:32:33 - Thank you.

2:32:36 Dakota.

2:32:40 (no audio)

2:32:45 - Good afternoon.

2:32:46 My name is Dakota

2:32:47 and I have a second grader in this district.

2:32:50 We moved from Georgia

2:32:52 after researching the best schools in Florida

2:32:54 and Brevard was one of them.

2:32:56 Well, now me and my husband have agreed

2:32:58 to remove our daughter from this district that we chose

2:33:02 because you have continued down this path.

2:33:05 We addressed this issue once, many times,

2:33:08 and the people spoke.

2:33:09 And you didn’t listen or else we wouldn’t be here today.

2:33:13 I think you all need to be removed

2:33:15 and new members need to be in your seat.

2:33:17 You have failed the constituents and defied our governor.

2:33:20 And if you haven’t seen what’s going on in France,

2:33:23 Australia, Germany, look into it

2:33:25 because you guys are putting us on a slippery slope

2:33:28 to communism and we won’t allow it.

2:33:30 We won’t allow you to abuse our kids.

2:33:31 We won’t cover their faces.

2:33:33 And you guys should be ashamed of yourselves

2:33:35 for not listening to your constituents.

2:33:37 Look at these people.

2:33:38 They’ve spoken more than once.

2:33:40 Now it’s time to listen to us

2:33:41 or get up and let somebody sit down who will.

2:33:44 Thank you.

2:33:45 - Thank you.

2:33:46 All right, Jennifer Linderman.

2:33:49 After Jennifer, we have Mary Hilberg,

2:33:51 Gina Lindhorst, Heather Schmidt, and Jessica Lapatina.

2:34:00 Next, we have Jennifer Linderman,

2:34:02 followed by Mary Hilberg, Gina Lindhorst,

2:34:05 Heather Schmidt, and then Jessica Lapatina.

2:34:09 Jennifer.

2:34:12 - I am a proud parent of a five-year-old kindergartener

2:34:15 at Audubon Elementary on Merritt Island.

2:34:17 I’m representing him today,

2:34:18 but I’m also representing a high school teacher

2:34:20 here in Brevard County who is working with her students

2:34:23 and couldn’t be here today.

2:34:24 She says, “Good morning, I’m a high school teacher

2:34:26 who is asking you to stay away

2:34:28 from a mandatory mask mandate for our children.

2:34:30 I do understand how real COVID is.

2:34:32 I do understand how important it is to keep everyone safe.

2:34:36 But it is also very important to let the families decide

2:34:39 if wearing a mask is best for their children.

2:34:41 Mental health is just as important as physical health.

2:34:44 And for many, being forced to wear a mask

2:34:46 does serious mental damage.

2:34:48 Not only did my own son suffer greatly

2:34:50 from being forced to wear a mask,

2:34:51 but so did my own students.

2:34:53 Anxiety and depression were very common.

2:34:54 Many students’ grades also dropped

2:34:56 because of the anxiousness about going to school

2:34:58 and having to keep the mask on.

2:35:00 One of my own sons was even threatened with detentions

2:35:03 for not wearing his mask

2:35:04 when he was just taking a sip of water.

2:35:06 And he was even told if he needed a mask break,

2:35:08 he could take it to the bathroom.

2:35:09 I saw firsthand how much high schoolers

2:35:11 did not wear their masks properly.

2:35:12 - Thanks, Jennifer.

2:35:14 Mary Hilbert.

2:35:23 - Good afternoon.

2:35:25 I’m Mary Hilbert.

2:35:26 I’m a 30-year critical care nurse in ICUs.

2:35:30 I’m also a Brevard native and I’ve lived here all my life.

2:35:34 Public health and public safety are interconnected.

2:35:39 You can’t really separate them.

2:35:41 Your responsibility to do both in our public school systems.

2:35:45 We appreciate all the hard work you’ve done,

2:35:48 but in this instance, masks are best option that you have.

2:35:54 And the data that has been presented to you

2:36:00 is not all of it is correct, I could say.

2:36:03 So please follow the mask mandate

2:36:07 and allow parents to opt out with the doctor’s excuse.

2:36:11 That would be fair.

2:36:12 Thank you.

2:36:13 - Thanks, Mary.

2:36:15 Dana.

2:36:22 - Good morning.

2:36:25 I am very concerned about our community.

2:36:27 The public health and public education

2:36:30 are simply interdependent.

2:36:33 Physical safety in schools includes being safely

2:36:37 and reasonably protected

2:36:38 from a known highly contagious disease.

2:36:42 The virus doesn’t care if you’re stupid or smart

2:36:45 or ugly or pretty or loud or soft-spoken.

2:36:48 It doesn’t care about desktops or counters.

2:36:51 It wants to get from one nose into another nose.

2:36:55 That’s what it does.

2:36:57 Since it is not currently possible

2:36:59 for advanced ventilation systems immediately

2:37:02 and physical, but they just do not allow distancing.

2:37:05 There is an obvious

2:37:06 and a cost effective mitigation strategy available.

2:37:08 A simple proper mask over the nose and mouth

2:37:10 for each person in the buildings where children are present

2:37:12 would protect our children as much as possible.

2:37:15 All children need to be safe in every way

2:37:18 while being educated in our public schools.

2:37:21 Our area’s current situation remains unstable

2:37:23 and worse now than last school year.

2:37:26 We are in an extremely high danger of infection.

2:37:28 - Thank you.

2:37:30 Heather Schmidt.

2:37:32 (indistinct chattering)

2:37:39 - Hi, I’m here because we need masks in schools.

2:37:41 A little bit of common sense

2:37:43 and a majority of public health officials

2:37:45 across our world right now are telling us

2:37:47 that masks do work, including the most recent.

2:37:50 CF study that just came out.

2:37:52 We can’t have liberty and choices and freedom

2:37:54 if we’re in the hospitals trying to fight this

2:37:56 because we’re not willing to do the basics here

2:37:58 to look out for one another.

2:38:00 I’m an essential worker.

2:38:01 I’ve been wearing a mask from day one,

2:38:03 showing up with doctors who do the same

2:38:04 because they do protect us.

2:38:06 I’m also a licensed mental health provider

2:38:09 and I can stand here assuring you

2:38:10 that any symptoms of anxiety and depression

2:38:12 that are being reported specifically due to masks

2:38:16 is learned behavior, it’s taught in the home.

2:38:18 My second grader probably every single day

2:38:21 goes to CPARC and wears his mask

2:38:23 because that’s what his parents tell him,

2:38:26 that we follow science and experts in our home.

2:38:28 And I’m standing here asking you to do the same

2:38:30 because my son doesn’t mind it.

2:38:32 And clearly the guidelines aren’t working right now.

2:38:35 We need rules, it’s time to mandate masks,

2:38:37 do the right thing.

2:38:38 - Thank you.

2:38:43 All right, Jessica La Patina,

2:38:45 and then we have Lori Williams, Scott Sivo,

2:38:48 and Casey Taxa.

2:38:53 - Hello, my name is Jessica La Patina.

2:38:56 As far back as September of 2020,

2:38:59 nature.com scientific reports,

2:39:02 the efficacy of masks concluded surgical mask or N95

2:39:06 only reduced particles emitted.

2:39:08 Efficacy of cloth and paper mask, not as clear.

2:39:13 Per CDC, currently Delta’s two times as contagious

2:39:18 people infected with Delta including fully vaccinated

2:39:21 can transmit and have similar amounts

2:39:23 of viral genetic material.

2:39:26 Then Pfizer CEO says a vaccine resistant variant

2:39:30 is likely to emerge.

2:39:32 But most important, per CDC,

2:39:36 portable HEPA air cleaners reduced exposure.

2:39:40 Mandate that ASAP in every classroom, not all mask work.

2:39:48 - Thank you.

2:39:50 Lori Williams.

2:39:54 - My name is Lori Williams.

2:39:56 I’m a satellite pH resident.

2:39:58 I’m here to remind the board members

2:40:00 that continue to push for mask mandates

2:40:02 that you were elected to ensure

2:40:03 that taxpayers voices were heard,

2:40:05 not to pursue your own personal and political agendas.

2:40:09 Top your selfishness and fear mongering

2:40:11 and consider the psychological, social

2:40:14 and health consequences of masking our children

2:40:16 eight hours a day.

2:40:18 Your continued attempt to override your role

2:40:20 and take away parents rights is immoral,

2:40:23 irresponsible and unconstitutional.

2:40:25 And for the board members who pursue this mask mandate,

2:40:28 who continue touching their face

2:40:30 and everything filthy around them,

2:40:32 you are not setting a good example.

2:40:34 (audience laughing)

2:40:39 - Thank you.

2:40:41 My patience is waning.

2:40:44 I’ve asked multiple times for the audience

2:40:47 to be respectful, to not interrupt the process,

2:40:52 to not respond to the speakers.

2:40:55 I have watched you all literally laugh

2:40:58 at people who are crying at the podium.

2:41:01 And whether I agree with you or they agree with you

2:41:04 or you agree with them, doesn’t matter to me at all.

2:41:08 But we will have a respectful environment

2:41:12 in this boardroom or we will have an empty boardroom.

2:41:18 So this is it.

2:41:20 If I have to address it one more time,

2:41:22 I’m reading the official statement

2:41:23 from the Sheriff’s department

2:41:25 and you all will be escorted outside.

2:41:28 Okay.

2:41:30 Scott Stable, I apologize.

2:41:35 Thank you.

2:41:38 - Thank you very much.

2:41:40 I sit here today thinking about how many people have to die.

2:41:47 Is one too many or is a hundred too many

2:41:50 or is a thousand too many?

2:41:52 How many people have to be sick the rest of their lives?

2:41:56 I don’t make the best decisions.

2:41:58 I can tell you that I walked into a bank last year

2:42:01 and I was coughing and I thought it was acid reflux.

2:42:04 It was COVID.

2:42:05 I could have killed somebody that day.

2:42:07 My sister in April of last year walked into a butcher shop

2:42:14 and somebody cough and four days later, she was dead.

2:42:22 This is not just about kids.

2:42:24 This is about kids taking this disease

2:42:28 and passing it on to parents

2:42:30 and parents talk passing it on to grandparents.

2:42:32 And if you don’t realize that there’s a pandemic going on

2:42:36 and there’s problems, I don’t know who can help you.

2:42:39 - Thank you, Scott.

2:42:43 Casey Taxa after Casey,

2:42:45 we have Wyatt Scumbo, Skip Parrish, and then Lindsay Blair.

2:42:52 - Good morning.

2:42:53 My name is Casey Taxa.

2:42:55 I too live in district three.

2:42:57 Thank you, Jennifer.

2:42:59 In 1922, the Supreme court ruled

2:43:02 that a school could deny admission to children

2:43:04 who failed to provide a certificate of vaccination

2:43:07 for the good of public health.

2:43:10 School boards around our country have been making decisions

2:43:13 for the good of public health ever since.

2:43:16 According to Friday’s dashboard,

2:43:18 we are almost to the number of positive cases

2:43:20 that our school district had for the entirety

2:43:23 of the 2020-2021 school year.

2:43:27 I am sure that tomorrow’s dashboard is gonna show

2:43:30 that we’ve exceeded it.

2:43:33 This is not sustainable.

2:43:35 I have three kids in secondary school

2:43:37 seeing 21 teachers a day.

2:43:40 Teachers are out, classes are combined.

2:43:43 It’s not good for the teachers.

2:43:45 It is not good for the kids.

2:43:47 It is time that we mandate masks,

2:43:49 stop the unmitigated spread,

2:43:51 and start getting our schools healthy enough to learn again.

2:43:54 - Thank you, Casey.

2:43:55 We appreciate you.

2:43:56 Wyatt.

2:44:02 - Hello board, this is my father, two kids,

2:44:06 and I believe kids should be kids.

2:44:08 They should be playing.

2:44:09 They shouldn’t be worried about the politics.

2:44:12 Coming to this meeting last night,

2:44:14 we were praying at home,

2:44:15 and my kids were asking me what’s our prayers,

2:44:17 we’re going back and forth.

2:44:18 I said, “There’s a meeting tomorrow.”

2:44:20 And they said, “Well, what’s it about?”

2:44:20 I said, “You know, it’s not anything

2:44:21 “you should be concerned about.”

2:44:23 And those shouldn’t be our kids’ concerns.

2:44:25 The politics getting pushed into the school

2:44:27 shouldn’t be their concerns.

2:44:29 And the masks that don’t, all the data, whatever,

2:44:33 we know if you look at the deaths

2:44:35 over the amount of age population, five to 14,

2:44:38 it is almost zero, and every life does matter.

2:44:42 But to make these changes to them,

2:44:44 to make them have to worry about things,

2:44:46 that shouldn’t be their concern.

2:44:48 It shouldn’t be in the school.

2:44:49 So my ask is that as you think about your decision,

2:44:52 you sit back and you pray,

2:44:54 and you ask God to give you insight

2:44:56 onto what the real decision should be

2:44:58 for our entire county, ‘cause that’s the impact you have.

2:45:02 - Thanks, Wyatt. - Thank you.

2:45:04 - Skip Parrish, after Skip, we have Lindsay Blair,

2:45:06 Molly Marder, and Kimberly Croflitz,

2:45:09 and then Scott LeBeouf.

2:45:11 Skip.

2:45:13 - Hi, so I’m hearing a lot about how unconstitutional

2:45:17 any kind of a mask mandate is.

2:45:20 I would ask that anybody that says that

2:45:22 actually research the time of our founding fathers,

2:45:26 wherein in the 1790s, when our capital

2:45:30 was still in Philadelphia,

2:45:31 because Washington, D.C. was not yet built,

2:45:34 there were quarantine and mitigations

2:45:37 for a yellow fever outbreak.

2:45:39 Additionally, I’m hearing things talking about

2:45:44 how this is a fault of communism if we allow masks.

2:45:48 As someone who is the son of two war veterans,

2:45:52 who spent four years of my life inside West Berlin

2:45:57 during the Cold War, that is ridiculous.

2:46:01 This is about safety, this is about health,

2:46:06 this is about protecting our children,

2:46:09 our teachers, our staff, and the community.

2:46:12 Please allow for masks.

2:46:14 - Thank you.

2:46:15 Lindsay.

2:46:23 - Hello, everyone.

2:46:24 I’m here to represent both my children

2:46:27 and their staff that interact with her each day.

2:46:30 My child has multiple teachers, multiple staff members

2:46:34 that assist her on a day-to-day basis.

2:46:37 Now isn’t the time for hyperbole.

2:46:39 Now isn’t the time for what ifs, for let’s get more data,

2:46:43 let’s do this, let’s wait on each thing.

2:46:45 I applaud Mr. Susan for more testing.

2:46:48 I feel we need a multi-pronged approach

2:46:51 that begin with masks, that begins with testing,

2:46:54 that begins with keeping everyone safe.

2:46:56 The sword of Damocles is gone.

2:46:59 The ruling has been issued.

2:47:02 Now is the time for you to do what you think is right.

2:47:04 Everyone else in here is.

2:47:06 We all stood through the heat and I applaud you

2:47:08 for sitting there and listening to all of us, thank you.

2:47:11 - Thank you.

2:47:15 Molly.

2:47:22 - Hello, my name is Molly Martyr.

2:47:24 My son attends Cape View last year, he was at Audubon.

2:47:28 We love it here at Brevard.

2:47:30 I’m a former special ed teacher

2:47:32 and I think that I can find some common ground here.

2:47:35 I mean, we all want our students and our teachers in school

2:47:40 and we also don’t wanna wear a mask.

2:47:43 Nobody wants to wear a mask.

2:47:45 However, things did change in Brevard County.

2:47:50 We have a very high transmission rate right now.

2:47:54 We can’t ignore the data.

2:47:57 The evidence is undeniable.

2:48:01 We have lots and lots and lots of doctors,

2:48:05 epidemiologists and others and I’ll leave this

2:48:09 and email it to you all the evidence based.

2:48:12 And based on data, what we are finding is that for those

2:48:16 that are not able to get a vaccine,

2:48:18 there’s only three things we can do

2:48:21 that will really reduce transmission.

2:48:23 - Thank you, Molly.

2:48:25 Kimberly.

2:48:39 - Distancing and ventilation is what she would like to say.

2:48:42 So I wanted to share that with you.

2:48:45 My name is Kim.

2:48:46 I didn’t move here from New Jersey or California

2:48:48 or Georgia.

2:48:50 My husband and I were born and raised here.

2:48:52 Edgwood, Jefferson, Merritt Island High.

2:48:53 I’m an attorney, he’s an engineer.

2:48:55 We have three children in Brevard Public Schools.

2:49:00 I hope that you, I believe that you can see

2:49:04 through the cherry picked science

2:49:06 that’s being presented here.

2:49:08 I mean, this is an educational board, right?

2:49:12 I mean, it blows my mind what I see here.

2:49:17 I’m not gonna tell you about the Texas Tech study.

2:49:19 You can find it in the last week.

2:49:20 The UCF study in the last week.

2:49:22 JAMA just retracted the study

2:49:24 on the carbon dioxide buildup and mask.

2:49:27 It’s there.

2:49:28 So don’t rely on the outdated and cherry picked science.

2:49:31 Don’t rely on the selfishness.

2:49:33 These children are gonna be so selfish.

2:49:35 Me, me, me, I agree with that woman.

2:49:37 This is about protecting others.

2:49:40 The teachers that are in the ICU.

2:49:42 - Thank you.

2:49:45 All right, next we have Scott LaButh followed

2:49:47 by Angela Wilkerson, Chris Bird, and Jade Zalewski.

2:49:52 Scott.

2:50:05 I’m guessing we don’t have Scott.

2:50:07 Oh, no worries.

2:50:13 - All right, I’m gonna make this quick.

2:50:14 - Hold on, give me just one second, Scott.

2:50:16 - As a parent, I had to make decisions

2:50:18 about what I’m willing to risk with my children,

2:50:20 what risks I expose them to.

2:50:22 Just wanna throw a few numbers out at you.

2:50:24 In 2018,

2:50:29 Department of Transportation basically made some statistics.

2:50:32 They said that 1,554 children drowned in 2018.

2:50:36 I’m not making,

2:50:38 just trying to give you guys something to compare to.

2:50:40 1,038 children died in motor vehicle collisions.

2:50:44 That doesn’t stop me from driving my children

2:50:46 and letting them swim.

2:50:48 So I’m willing to make the decisions about the wealth

2:50:51 or the health and wellbeing of my children.

2:50:54 2020, 74,868 children were born in the state of Florida.

2:51:00 Where’s everybody’s outrage?

2:51:02 So as a parent, we have the right

2:51:04 to decide what’s best for our children.

2:51:07 Just so you have something to compare that to,

2:51:08 the CDC national numbers, the second and third week of July,

2:51:12 the numbers peaked for positive cases for COVID-19.

2:51:16 They were–

2:51:16 - Thank you, Scott.

2:51:17 We appreciate you.

2:51:20 Angela Wilkerson.

2:51:32 - Hold on one second.

2:51:33 I don’t think, can you guys, yes, closer.

2:51:38 - I’m a parent of elementary, middle school,

2:51:39 and high school students in the district.

2:51:41 My background is in counseling and school psychology

2:51:44 and I’ve taught human growth and development

2:51:46 at the college level.

2:51:47 I’m concerned about critical development,

2:51:49 critical periods of language development.

2:51:51 They come to a close in early childhood.

2:51:53 Mass children cannot see the mouths of their peers

2:51:55 and teachers which may hamper language development

2:51:57 and delay identification of speech and language delays.

2:52:00 I’m concerned that up to 93% of communication

2:52:03 is nonverbal to include facial expression

2:52:05 and paralinguistic skills such as voice tone and loudness.

2:52:08 I believe masks hamper the development of

2:52:11 nonverbal communication skills.

2:52:13 I am concerned that children in masks

2:52:15 are unable to social reference,

2:52:17 which is when children use facial expressions of adults

2:52:19 to learn if things in this world are safe,

2:52:21 dangerous, happy, or sad.

2:52:23 I believe this contributes to delayed development,

2:52:26 an unpredictable world, and childhood anxiety.

2:52:29 What happens when millions of children

2:52:31 are unable to participate in normal social,

2:52:33 emotional, and language development activities?

2:52:35 We cannot remotely understand the long-term

2:52:38 developmental ramifications. - Thanks, Angela.

2:52:39 We appreciate you.

2:52:40 Chris Byrd?

2:52:48 - Chris Byrd, District Three, satellite high parent.

2:52:52 First, I am tired of seeing our dashboard numbers

2:52:56 that are sized.

2:52:58 There are multiple variants, variables from last year.

2:53:02 Not only is it masks, it’s also the Delta variant.

2:53:06 More kids in school, no block scheduling.

2:53:10 Stop focusing on just masks and making it politics only.

2:53:16 By removing a medical decision from the individual,

2:53:19 public health officials and education officials

2:53:21 have turned masks into a political conflict

2:53:24 between individualism and collectivism,

2:53:28 a very dangerous ideology that runs antithetical to it.

2:53:32 Judge Cooper clearly believes individual medical decisions

2:53:36 should be made by the collective, all of you,

2:53:39 which is not the intent of what is called

2:53:43 the Parents’ Bill of Rights,

2:53:45 not the Collective’s Bill of Rights.

2:53:49 - Thank you, Chris.

2:53:51 Jade?

2:53:52 After Jade, we have Alyssa Hollinger, Patty Sims,

2:53:55 and then Nathan Wolf, and then board members

2:53:58 will probably break at that point.

2:54:00 Does that work for you?

2:54:04 - Hold on one second, go ahead.

2:54:07 - Can you hear me now?

2:54:08 Hello, okay.

2:54:11 I would like to start by saying I hope that I’m wrong.

2:54:13 I hope that you all made the right decision

2:54:16 and vote for the individual freedom of the students

2:54:18 to decide what is best for them in regards to masks.

2:54:21 But here we are yet again.

2:54:22 So I will use my measly minute to request

2:54:25 that you revisit the quarantine policy,

2:54:27 especially if all the students are going to be masked,

2:54:29 you know, since they work, right?

2:54:31 There should be no need to quarantine exposed peers.

2:54:34 Thank you.

2:54:35 - Thank you.

2:54:38 Patty Sims.

2:54:41 - Oh, wait, Alyssa.

2:54:42 - Oh, wait, Alyssa, I’m sorry, yeah.

2:54:46 I’m giving myself a check mark, they’re too fast.

2:54:51 - Thank you.

2:54:53 I strongly oppose mask mandates in our public schools.

2:54:57 One minute isn’t nearly enough time

2:54:59 to go over the stream of constant studies and statistics

2:55:03 that continue to show the lack of efficacy

2:55:06 and the psychological, emotional, and physical detriment

2:55:10 that is caused by covering our children’s faces.

2:55:13 My five-year-old child just begun kindergarten this year.

2:55:18 My husband and I had a really difficult choice to make.

2:55:21 We chose to keep her out of Brevard Public Schools

2:55:26 because of the 21-month rollercoaster

2:55:28 that has gone back and forth.

2:55:29 It’s not fair for her.

2:55:32 We don’t wanna participate in the state-run education system

2:55:35 because, honestly, we don’t trust it anymore.

2:55:38 It’s really sad, and our taxpayer dollars go into that.

2:55:40 We work really hard, and we pay your salary.

2:55:45 Not many families can choose

2:55:48 to take their child out of school like we have.

2:55:50 We’ve had to rearrange our whole entire lives.

2:55:52 - Thank you, Alyssa.

2:55:54 Patty?

2:56:02 - Today you’re here to provide input

2:56:06 about imposing more rules on our community.

2:56:09 My question is this.

2:56:10 Why should you make rules for our children

2:56:12 when you don’t follow your own rules?

2:56:15 Between her tweet on August 27th

2:56:18 and her press conference the same day,

2:56:20 one of your members violated at least four

2:56:22 of your own rules for school board conduct.

2:56:26 If we can’t trust you to enforce your own rules,

2:56:30 why do you think you should be making rules

2:56:32 for our community?

2:56:34 Get your board under control, then work on the rules.

2:56:39 - Nathan Wolf?

2:56:47 - Yes, hi.

2:56:48 I have good news.

2:56:51 There have been several counties in the state of Florida

2:56:53 that have already mandated mask-wearing

2:56:56 in the public schools of that county.

2:56:58 I was able to print out their dashboards

2:57:00 and notice that in Palm Beach County

2:57:02 they had 2,910 confirmed cases.

2:57:05 Orange County, which is right next door to us,

2:57:08 has 3,238 confirmed cases.

2:57:11 And Hillsborough County has 5,719 confirmed cases,

2:57:17 which, as a scientist, anyone can see

2:57:20 that mandating mask does not work.

2:57:22 It’s ineffective.

2:57:23 If you would like to wear a mask, please wear a mask.

2:57:26 If you think that works, it’s fine.

2:57:29 But it’s not to be mandated for everyone.

2:57:31 Thank you.

2:57:32 - Thank you.

2:57:38 All right, folks, we’re gonna take a brief recess,

2:57:39 refresh, recharge, and we’ll be back.

2:57:56 (gentle music)

2:58:26 (gentle music continues)

3:14:05 - All right, we are back in session,

3:14:08 starting with speaker 115 out of 141.

3:14:14 Mr. Susan, I think you had a request

3:14:17 for a brief moment of silence before we move on.

3:14:21 - Is my mic on?

3:14:22 - No, but I can make it on. - It’s okay.

3:14:23 - Go ahead. - Thank you.

3:14:24 I just wanted to take a second.

3:14:26 Right now, as we are debating over this,

3:14:30 we have a hurricane that is hitting New Orleans.

3:14:34 And regardless of how we vote here today,

3:14:36 we know we have Americans in another place

3:14:39 that we should all be having a moment of silence for,

3:14:41 because we are already seeing people

3:14:43 who are passing away and things like that,

3:14:46 and we have rescue crews going.

3:14:48 So I just wanted to have a moment of silence real fast

3:14:50 for the individuals that are in New Orleans

3:14:52 and the surrounding parishes and what we were doing.

3:14:55 Thank you.

3:15:15 Thank you, Ms. Belpher.

3:15:17 - Thank you, Mr. Susan.

3:15:19 - All right, we have Ashley Renninger,

3:15:22 Amber Johnson, Lynn DeCoulas will be our next three speakers.

3:15:28 If you guys could get on deck for me, that would be great.

3:15:36 - Are you afraid I’m safe?

3:15:37 (all laughing)

3:15:43 - Ashley.

3:15:50 - Thank you so much for allowing us to be here.

3:15:51 I really appreciate it.

3:15:52 I appreciate all the effort that goes into this.

3:15:55 I’m not blind to that,

3:15:57 but I wanted to bring attention to my son.

3:15:59 His name is Ford.

3:16:01 He goes to school at Stevenson Elementary.

3:16:03 And last year he wore his mask every day.

3:16:06 And every day he came home about it and he said,

3:16:08 “This is upsetting, it hurts me, I have to wear it outside.”

3:16:11 He had a teacher that was very for masks.

3:16:14 And one day he goes to school and he cut holes in his mask

3:16:18 because he said, “I can finally breathe now.”

3:16:20 And that teacher bullied him,

3:16:22 made him walk behind every student in line

3:16:26 and went and said, had to sit alone at the table.

3:16:31 I implore you, do the right thing, make it optional.

3:16:35 If they don’t wanna wear a mask, fine, don’t wear a mask.

3:16:38 If they don’t, if they wanna wear a mask, wear a mask.

3:16:41 I’m not here to yell at anybody.

3:16:43 I have lost a family member to COVID.

3:16:45 I’m not here to spread fear.

3:16:46 I want intelligent responses.

3:16:48 Here we go, let them do the right thing.

3:16:51 - Thank you.

3:16:53 Amber?

3:16:55 After Amber Johnson, we have Lynn DeCoulas,

3:16:59 Richard Mariani, and then Matthew Anderson.

3:17:08 - Nash, do you know the Pledge of Allegiance?

3:17:10 Indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

3:17:12 Is that part of it Nash?

3:17:13 - Yes.

3:17:14 - Where’s his liberty and justice?

3:17:16 I wanna take a moment to thank all of you who voted

3:17:18 to keep masks optional as it should be.

3:17:20 Please keep fighting for us.

3:17:21 You have to be our voice.

3:17:22 And today is my first time in attendance

3:17:24 ‘cause I am fed up.

3:17:25 I ask our elected officials to uphold

3:17:26 Executive Order 21-175,

3:17:29 ensuring parents’ freedom to choose masks in school.

3:17:32 This gives us all the option to mask or not.

3:17:34 Why is this being questioned?

3:17:35 We choose not to live in fear.

3:17:37 Those fearful few have the choice to homeschool their kids

3:17:39 just as I did the previous year

3:17:41 while I awaited our judicial system

3:17:43 to work through their due diligence

3:17:44 and listened every day to my son beg me,

3:17:46 “Mom, please, please do not make me wear a mask.”

3:17:49 Proudly, we are now moving forward.

3:17:51 Let’s not backslide.

3:17:52 I will not conform.

3:17:53 I will not consent.

3:17:54 Public schools should remain open to everyone without bias

3:17:57 by keeping masks optional.

3:17:59 Let’s lead by example and continue to fight

3:18:01 for our liberty and freedom for all.

3:18:03 Masks are distracting and scientifically proven

3:18:05 to be ineffective.

3:18:06 - Thank you.

3:18:09 Lynn.

3:18:15 - So I’m Linda Colis.

3:18:17 I live in Merritt Island.

3:18:19 My daughter is a single mother and she needs to work.

3:18:24 So last year, they put the mask mandate in

3:18:26 and I took over homeschooling my grandson.

3:18:31 If they put the mask mandate back in,

3:18:34 my grandson will be coming to be homeschooled

3:18:36 by grandma once again, all right?

3:18:40 With this being said,

3:18:41 I want my tax dollars back for last year.

3:18:45 And if you pass it,

3:18:46 I want my school tax dollars back for this year.

3:18:51 Have a nice day and thank you.

3:18:55 - All right, Richard Mariani.

3:19:04 - Good morning, Brevard County School Board.

3:19:07 Stop masking and excessively quarantining the healthy

3:19:11 and those with natural artificial immunity.

3:19:13 I, Richard K. Mariani from South Patrick’s

3:19:16 survived the full blown COVID flu.

3:19:18 My wife had a mild headache, but my mom died of it.

3:19:23 The CDC, Fauci and the experts will tell you

3:19:26 we must achieve herd immunity.

3:19:29 This is achieved by having antibodies

3:19:31 or the ability to create them quickly.

3:19:33 This happens when the body is exposed to the COVID virus.

3:19:37 Best case, a universal mask mandate

3:19:39 will only delay herd immunity.

3:19:42 No matter what you decide here today,

3:19:44 the parents of Brevard County will decide where,

3:19:48 if and when their children will wear masks

3:19:51 and ultimately where their children will go to school.

3:19:54 Vote smart, vote no on universal mask mandate

3:19:57 and may God grant you the wisdom of Solomon today.

3:19:59 Thank you.

3:20:00 - Thank you.

3:20:01 Matthew Anderson and then after Matthew,

3:20:04 we have Brenda Anderson, Carol Vyhonsky,

3:20:07 Martin Richter and then Paul Strauss, Matthew.

3:20:12 - Hello, I am Matthew Anderson from Melbourne High School

3:20:16 and I am a senior.

3:20:18 Just ask yourself, why is it that a pro-freedom measure

3:20:21 is government overreach, but taking away freedom of choice

3:20:24 and forcing muzzles isn’t overreach.

3:20:27 In a moral government in society,

3:20:29 neither would have to occur.

3:20:31 Liberty and freedom die in the face of mandates.

3:20:35 John Adams once said, “Liberty once lost is lost forever.”

3:20:40 And we’re seeing that in full force today

3:20:42 in other countries.

3:20:44 You know that our rights were given to us by God

3:20:47 and you can never take them away.

3:20:50 Not by you and not by politicians

3:20:52 who want to force arbitrary rules onto us.

3:20:55 A righteous government does not force people

3:20:58 to wear muzzles in the guise of false safety.

3:21:01 A righteous government puts forth free will.

3:21:05 Shame to governments, to government that has total disregard

3:21:08 to our God-given right.

3:21:10 We cannot stand for medical tyranny.

3:21:12 - Thank you.

3:21:14 Brenda Anderson?

3:21:24 - Brenda Anderson, that was my son, Matthew Anderson.

3:21:27 I also have a quote from a founding father,

3:21:30 Benjamin Franklin.

3:21:31 “A society that will give up liberty for security

3:21:34 “will have neither liberty or security.”

3:21:37 These are our freedoms.

3:21:38 We cannot get them back once they are given up.

3:21:40 We don’t ask for the freedom to parent our children

3:21:42 as we see fit.

3:21:43 We already have it.

3:21:45 The children are not owned by the state.

3:21:47 The children are the parents.

3:21:49 They are not your property.

3:21:50 And we can make the decisions for our children

3:21:53 that will benefit them and keep them safe.

3:21:57 We are not giving in, because what is next?

3:22:00 An unnecessary vaccine for a virus that has a 99.97%

3:22:05 survival rate for the children.

3:22:08 And there’s a lot of kids that are being put

3:22:10 under quarantine that are not even sick.

3:22:12 We are teaching the children that they are dirty and sick,

3:22:15 and we’re also teaching them to be afraid

3:22:17 of everything around them.

3:22:18 I’m against the mask mandate and I will not comply.

3:22:22 - Thank you.

3:22:25 Martin, Carol, sorry.

3:22:30 - Hello, a couple of people have already spoken

3:22:38 on what I was gonna speak about,

3:22:40 but I’ll go ahead and do it anyway.

3:22:43 At the last board meeting, a full board member read

3:22:47 from this document.

3:22:48 It’s the emergency rule from the Department of Health,

3:22:53 Florida Department of Health, regarding quarantine.

3:22:56 And you all were in agreement that you needed

3:22:59 to follow this document in order to,

3:23:05 these are the rules for quarantines

3:23:06 and you have to follow it.

3:23:08 But this document also contains a rule regarding masks.

3:23:13 And it says, the school must allow for a parent

3:23:16 or legal guardian to opt out the student

3:23:20 from wearing a face covering or mask.

3:23:23 If you have to follow this document regarding quarantine,

3:23:27 you have to also allow a parent opt out for masks,

3:23:30 not a medical exemption, not a doctor note,

3:23:34 a parent opt out, thank you.

3:23:36 - Thank you.

3:23:38 Martin, and then after Martin, we have Paul Strauss,

3:23:42 Elisa, sorry.

3:23:48 Martin Ricker, and then after Martin, we have–

3:23:50 - Martin Ricker’s not here.

3:23:52 - Okay, then we have Paul Strauss, Elisa Meyer,

3:23:56 Shelby Jocelyn Boot, and then Kim Wood.

3:24:00 Paul? - Yes.

3:24:04 So I’m here because I was told about this meeting

3:24:09 over the weekend that we were having an emergency meeting

3:24:13 at 10 o’clock on a Monday morning.

3:24:16 And a lot has been said about masks one way or the other,

3:24:19 and I’m not going to address that too much.

3:24:21 What I’d really like to address is why are we having

3:24:25 a Monday morning 10 a.m. meeting that’s dragging on now

3:24:29 for hours so that we’re in the stakeholders can’t be here.

3:24:33 Now, I grew up in Cook County, Illinois.

3:24:36 I lived there until I joined the Navy in 1989.

3:24:40 And I will tell you this, I have seen this kind of stunt

3:24:43 pulled before, and that’s what it is, it’s a stunt, okay?

3:24:46 You’re trying to slip one by people, you’re trying to force

3:24:48 a vote on a mask mandate because of a judge’s ruling,

3:24:51 not because of any health or safety concerns.

3:24:53 And you’re trying to do it when the masks of parents

3:24:56 and other stakeholders can’t be here.

3:24:59 That is what I’m upset about, and I think you should

3:25:01 postpone this vote until there’s another meeting.

3:25:04 - Thank you.

3:25:06 Elisa Meyer?

3:25:12 - Hi, first off, I have two students in BPS schools.

3:25:16 First, I work in an ER, I see what’s going on

3:25:18 and don’t take any of this lightly.

3:25:20 I was one of those that made masks in the beginning

3:25:22 and as time passed and data came out,

3:25:24 I questioned what was going on.

3:25:26 I haven’t worn a mask in public since mid-summer 2020.

3:25:29 Data does not support it.

3:25:31 In fact, I have a chart here from the CDC

3:25:33 that shows increases cases during our mandatory

3:25:36 mask school year, a drop during the summer,

3:25:39 and an increase before school started this year.

3:25:43 And we are now on the decline,

3:25:45 and I can even see it in my hospital.

3:25:48 Kids are not doing this.

3:25:50 They are among the safest population to contract

3:25:52 and survive with antibodies greater than a vaccine.

3:25:55 The masks didn’t work before,

3:25:56 and now with the current declining trend,

3:25:58 this is a day late and a dollar short

3:26:00 if you think masks work.

3:26:02 Why are we here if we are so scared everyone is going to die?

3:26:06 Why am I sacrificing my child’s health for your fear?

3:26:09 Leave it up to the parents to do what’s right

3:26:11 for their family, and if that means your vaxed,

3:26:13 masked, sanitized, and scared, stay home.

3:26:15 - We appreciate you joining us today.

3:26:18 Shelby?

3:26:25 - Hello.

3:26:27 I am here to make sure that my children are safe

3:26:29 to learn the same lessons I learned

3:26:30 in Brevard County Schools.

3:26:32 I am here to make sure they are protected from COVID-19

3:26:36 by safe, effective, and harmless masks.

3:26:39 In kindergarten, I learned to keep my hands to myself.

3:26:41 Everyone deserves to be kept safe.

3:26:44 Every child deserves protection from harm.

3:26:47 In science, I learned that my opinions did not change facts,

3:26:50 and science says, just like gravity, masks work too.

3:26:53 In history, I learned doing the right thing

3:26:55 is not always easy.

3:26:57 I learned that history will remember and revile the names

3:26:59 of those who sent others to their death,

3:27:02 and history will remember.

3:27:05 Do not make preventable deaths

3:27:06 from this COVID pandemic your legacy.

3:27:09 Do the right thing and ensure that your legacy

3:27:11 includes saving children from COVID

3:27:13 rather than sacrificing their health and lives

3:27:15 to satisfy those who are on the wrong side of history.

3:27:20 And I have an 18-month-old at home and two in school.

3:27:23 I’m trying to protect my 18-month-old, too.

3:27:26 - Thanks, Toby.

3:27:28 Next, we have Kim Wood, followed by Marie Wallace,

3:27:30 Shannon Bleden, and then Gordon Sumner.

3:27:35 - Hello.

3:27:36 I’d just like to thank you first

3:27:37 for the job that you guys are doing,

3:27:39 ‘cause this is not an easy job, I can’t imagine.

3:27:43 I have two children in school, BPS school district.

3:27:48 My high school son wears a mask.

3:27:51 My elementary child does not.

3:27:54 And one of the reason why he doesn’t wear a mask

3:27:56 is because most of the people in his class don’t wear them.

3:28:00 I think there’s maybe four.

3:28:02 I hope that you guys make a decision

3:28:05 that is based on facts.

3:28:09 I know everybody has their own opinion,

3:28:11 and I am pro-opinion or pro-choice.

3:28:16 My husband and I both choose to wear a mask,

3:28:18 but we let our children make the decision

3:28:20 that they feel is best for them.

3:28:24 Also, my son, a second week of school,

3:28:27 my elementary child that does not wear a mask,

3:28:29 second week of school, half of his class, 11 out of 22,

3:28:34 were sent home because of one child in the classroom.

3:28:37 - Thank you.

3:28:38 We appreciate you joining us today.

3:28:40 Mary Wallace.

3:28:51 - Hi, my name is Mary,

3:28:52 and I have a daughter at Gemini Elementary School.

3:28:56 First of all, I wanna thank the board members.

3:28:59 What a terrible year to be a member

3:29:02 of the Board of Education.

3:29:03 So thank you for doing your job,

3:29:06 and God bless you going forward.

3:29:09 You’re all intelligent people.

3:29:10 I don’t need to tell you what the real science shows.

3:29:13 The science is so clear on this.

3:29:15 Masks save lives, end of story.

3:29:20 Last year, I felt so happy and proud

3:29:23 to be able to say I live in Brevard County

3:29:25 because our schools were, almost all of them,

3:29:29 open all year long, and our kids were safe.

3:29:32 And that is because our teachers, our administrators,

3:29:36 our staff, they did a great job of following

3:29:39 the protocols that were in place.

3:29:41 This year, we’re dealing with the Delta variant,

3:29:43 which is a truly worst beast,

3:29:45 and we need the mask mandate back in place.

3:29:48 I beg you to reinstate the mask mandate.

3:29:50 Thank you for your time.

3:29:51 - Thank you.

3:29:53 - Shannon.

3:29:59 - Thank you very much for calling this meeting so early.

3:30:03 I’m in District Three.

3:30:04 I have three children, two high school students,

3:30:06 and one middle schooler.

3:30:07 And I’m here to represent them.

3:30:10 They have asked you to implore you

3:30:13 to please put the mask mandate back.

3:30:15 They all wear them.

3:30:16 They’re all vaccinated.

3:30:18 But my young one, too many of her friends,

3:30:21 little brothers and sisters, can’t protect themselves.

3:30:25 And she wants to see her friends.

3:30:29 She wants to have them be safe.

3:30:32 My high schoolers just want their lives back.

3:30:36 And this is temporary.

3:30:37 It’s temporary, just like the woman right before me said.

3:30:42 Last year was great.

3:30:43 It was wonderful.

3:30:45 I mean, it wasn’t, but you know, the schools were open.

3:30:48 Kids were able to go.

3:30:50 As a psychologist, I’m actually seeing more people

3:30:53 worried about getting it and worrying about

3:30:56 their kids and family members dying and grief.

3:30:59 That’s what I’m seeing.

3:31:00 Please mask.

3:31:02 - Thank you.

3:31:03 Gordon Sumner, followed by Taylor Sumner,

3:31:05 Madeline Sumner, and Grace Sumner.

3:31:10 - Good morning, guys.

3:31:11 My name is Gordon.

3:31:12 I’m eight and 10 and 13 year old,

3:31:14 two at Ocean Breeze and one at Hoover.

3:31:17 And my position has changed on the mask.

3:31:19 I don’t care what you do.

3:31:20 I don’t care how you vote.

3:31:21 My kids are coming to school without masks.

3:31:23 They are, and then you can send them home.

3:31:25 My lawyer’s still a retainer, and we’re gonna see you.

3:31:27 And we’ll see.

3:31:28 You don’t have to follow the law.

3:31:29 I don’t either.

3:31:30 But I want to bring up a much bigger problem.

3:31:33 We’re all worried about the health of children,

3:31:35 and we can just save one life.

3:31:37 I want to bring up the largest killer of any age group

3:31:40 in the world last year.

3:31:42 42.6 million deaths.

3:31:45 Almost 700,000 in the United States.

3:31:48 And half of those were people of color.

3:31:50 Well, yeah, Black Lives Matter.

3:31:51 I don’t have their contact,

3:31:52 but I’m sure someone on this board does.

3:31:54 You might can call them and let them know

3:31:56 they might need to protest this.

3:31:58 Abortion.

3:32:02 Where’s the outrage?

3:32:03 If we could just save one life, right?

3:32:05 We just want to save one life.

3:32:08 And raise you this.

3:32:09 We don’t have the numbers from last year.

3:32:10 This is 2018.

3:32:11 - Thanks, Mr. Sumner.

3:32:12 We appreciate you joining us.

3:32:16 Taylor?

3:32:21 - Hi, my name’s Taylor.

3:32:23 I go to Hoover Middle School.

3:32:25 I think that you shouldn’t mandate masks.

3:32:28 I know a lot of people that really don’t like masks,

3:32:32 in my opinion.

3:32:33 I did everything that I was told last year.

3:32:36 But then it just got too long.

3:32:39 I think that it’s just a load of bull crap.

3:32:43 And it shouldn’t, masks don’t work.

3:32:46 They don’t save lives.

3:32:48 And yeah.

3:32:53 - Thanks, Taylor.

3:32:54 Madeline?

3:33:03 - I will not follow the world.

3:33:05 I will follow God.

3:33:08 The world says to wear a mask and obey the government.

3:33:11 But God says to be free and obey his commands.

3:33:16 I will listen to God and be free.

3:33:18 You can do, you can too.

3:33:22 - Thanks, Madeline.

3:33:24 Grace?

3:33:26 And after Grace, we have Sarah Wagner, Ashley Black,

3:33:28 and then Peter Foske.

3:33:32 - I will refuse to wear a mask.

3:33:34 I don’t care what people tell me.

3:33:36 God didn’t make us to be slaves.

3:33:38 I will not wear a mask.

3:33:40 If I have to get homeschooled, I will.

3:33:43 I will refuse to wear a mask, period.

3:33:47 - Thank you, Grace.

3:33:50 Sarah Wagner?

3:33:55 - Hi, my name’s Sarah Wagner.

3:33:56 I live in District One.

3:33:58 Chairwoman, I don’t think I have to tell you about

3:33:59 a House Bill 119.

3:34:02 As you know, this is for ISR training for kids,

3:34:06 for kindergartners.

3:34:08 The number one killer between the ages of six months

3:34:13 to the ages of 16 in the state of Florida.

3:34:16 Listed as one for ages three to five, and then so forth.

3:34:20 It’s one, two, and three across the board of killers.

3:34:24 Yet, the House Bill says you cannot mandate the ISR.

3:34:29 So why in the world would we not mandate that

3:34:32 as the number one killer,

3:34:33 but yet we would mandate masks in our school?

3:34:37 I will not send my child with a mask.

3:34:40 I will not comply.

3:34:41 I will not pull my kids from our public school.

3:34:45 But I will not comply.

3:34:51 - Thank you, Sarah.

3:34:52 Ashley, Ashley Black?

3:34:58 Peter Foscas?

3:35:05 Radula Sharon?

3:35:10 And then after that, we have Samantha Brown

3:35:12 and Jeff Sharon.

3:35:28 - Hi, thank you, my name is Mithi Sharon.

3:35:32 This is the third meeting to discuss mask mandates.

3:35:35 Last time you had a medical panel,

3:35:37 not one of them firmly said masks work 100% of the time

3:35:40 to prevent death.

3:35:42 What they did say was the new Delta variant

3:35:44 is highly contagious, but less deadly.

3:35:47 So what is the goal here?

3:35:48 To get to 0% infections, it’s not gonna happen.

3:35:51 So what I understand is that in Europe,

3:35:53 kids are going to school because they value education.

3:35:57 Please acknowledge that the surge is gonna occur

3:35:59 whether you have a mask mandate or not.

3:36:01 What are you gonna say when you put a mask mandate on

3:36:03 and the surge doesn’t come down?

3:36:05 You’re gonna lose credibility.

3:36:08 As I understand it, you’re the school board,

3:36:10 not the safety board.

3:36:11 And if that is so, just acknowledge that the data

3:36:14 showing that masked schools didn’t have any safer outcome

3:36:18 than those that did not mask.

3:36:20 Two things that work, the masks don’t work,

3:36:22 ventilation and proper cleaning of surfaces works.

3:36:25 Keeping home unhealthy kids

3:36:27 and not quarantining healthy kids works.

3:36:30 Thank you.

3:36:31 - Thank you.

3:36:32 Samantha Brown.

3:36:36 Going once, going twice, Samantha Brown.

3:36:40 Jeff Sharon, and then after Jeff, we have Crystal Casey,

3:36:43 John Glasser and Christine Applegate.

3:36:48 - In June, I moved with my wife and three kids

3:36:52 from California because that state

3:36:54 did not follow the science.

3:36:56 That they shut down schools for a year,

3:36:58 had endless lockdowns, as I’m sure you’ve all heard,

3:37:00 and they ended up with the same stats as Florida.

3:37:04 It was a complete failure and now they’re likely

3:37:07 gonna recall their governor.

3:37:09 That whole year, Florida was being demonized.

3:37:12 But we looked to Florida as a beacon

3:37:14 of basing decisions on science and data.

3:37:16 After all, they kept their schools open.

3:37:20 Now I’m seeing the same alarming things happening

3:37:22 that I saw in California, namely appeals to emotion

3:37:25 and fear and acting like the vaccines do not exist.

3:37:31 Aren’t parents owed undeniable proof

3:37:32 if you’re going to force a mask on our children?

3:37:36 The CDC’s own study in Georgia showed zero

3:37:39 statistical difference in mask mandate

3:37:41 when they looked at a mask mandate school

3:37:42 versus a mask optional school.

3:37:44 Follow the science and stand by your August 10th vote.

3:37:47 That was only three weeks ago.

3:37:49 - Thanks, Jeff.

3:37:51 Crystal.

3:38:03 - I stand with Governor DeSantis.

3:38:06 Let the citizens choose if they want to wear a mask.

3:38:12 There is no definitive research to prove

3:38:14 that masks of varying performance types

3:38:16 filter respiratory droplets to prevent

3:38:18 the spread of COVID-19.

3:38:21 This is due to the fact that viruses are tiny

3:38:24 and range in size from 20 nanometers to 500 nanometers.

3:38:28 Since COVID-19 is spread by respiratory droplets in the air,

3:38:32 otherwise known as an aerosol,

3:38:34 how different types of masks would or would not allow

3:38:37 the passage of COVID-19 particles this small

3:38:39 has not been demonstrated by the CDC.

3:38:42 Masks don’t stop the Wuhan flu.

3:38:48 In fact, there is no conclusive evidence

3:38:51 that proves that masks of the sort typically worn

3:38:54 by students would filter the COVID-19 virus

3:38:59 of 20 to 500 nanometers.

3:39:01 I stand with DeSantis, no mask mandate.

3:39:04 - Thank you.

3:39:06 John.

3:39:12 - Morning, my name is John Glazier.

3:39:14 I have two boys in high school at Merritt Island.

3:39:17 Third son is homeschooled right now.

3:39:19 We took him out last year because of the mask mandate.

3:39:21 I want to encourage you all to vote no

3:39:25 to further mandates for masks.

3:39:28 And I also want this circus to stop.

3:39:32 District three representative,

3:39:34 please quit calling emergency meetings

3:39:37 that are unnecessary, wasteful on a Monday morning

3:39:40 because I’m speaking up for the people

3:39:42 that can’t be here on a Monday morning.

3:39:43 They’re at work, for the students that are in school,

3:39:45 for the teachers that are in school.

3:39:47 They don’t have a choice to be here, but I did.

3:39:50 And I want you to vote for a choice.

3:39:52 Brevard County is a place that we launch rockets.

3:39:55 We launch boats,

3:39:56 but we do not launch people’s political careers.

3:40:02 - Christine.

3:40:12 - Here today on behalf of my daughter.

3:40:14 I was 16 and a student of your high school.

3:40:17 She is scared to be in school with students

3:40:19 having the option to not wear a mask.

3:40:21 She takes this pandemic seriously

3:40:23 and feels wearing a mask is the right thing to do.

3:40:26 She’s vaccinated and believes

3:40:27 in order to get life back to normal,

3:40:29 we must make a few sacrifices in order to protect the weak

3:40:33 and vulnerable from this virus.

3:40:35 We have lost friends and family to this nasty virus.

3:40:38 It’s real.

3:40:39 We are also aware some young people aren’t getting sick,

3:40:41 but they are spreading it to others

3:40:43 that might not be that fortunate.

3:40:45 I keep hearing people talk about freedom.

3:40:47 We’ll tell that to the doctors and nurses

3:40:49 suffering from PTSD and they can’t see their family

3:40:53 ‘cause they’re working overtime.

3:40:55 What about the sick who can’t get

3:40:56 the proper medical attention

3:40:57 because the hospitals are full to capacity?

3:41:00 What about the child who can’t go to school

3:41:02 because they have a low immune system?

3:41:05 At the end of the day,

3:41:05 Brevard School should be protecting all children

3:41:09 of this county as advised by the CDC.

3:41:11 Our children and teachers need to feel safe in their schools

3:41:14 if masks are not made mandatory, then provide e-learning.

3:41:19 - Thank you, we appreciate you joining us this morning.

3:41:24 All right, that is going to conclude

3:41:26 our public comment for today.

3:41:28 Board members, do you need a break

3:41:29 before we go into discussion of the policy

3:41:31 or do you want to forge ahead?

3:41:35 - Let’s go.

3:41:36 - Forge ahead?

3:41:37 - Okay.

3:41:40 - Okay, give me just one second.

3:41:49 All right, we are now at our action item.

3:41:52 As stated earlier, the board has called

3:41:54 this emergency meeting in order to address

3:41:55 the extremely high number of COVID cases

3:41:57 and quarantines within Brevard Public Schools.

3:42:00 We will be considering a face mask requirement

3:42:02 as a mitigation strategy.

3:42:03 Attached to the agenda item is an emergency policy

3:42:05 for the board to consider requiring face coverings.

3:42:08 I would remind board members that as an emergency policy,

3:42:11 this policy can be amended here at the meeting.

3:42:14 Should you, in fact, I have one request from cabinet

3:42:18 for an amendment to just verbiage on the policy.

3:42:21 So the policy is before you, do we have a motion

3:42:26 to open for discussion?

3:42:28 - I make a motion to open for discussion.

3:42:29 - Ms. McDougall has motioned, is there a second?

3:42:32 - Second.

3:42:33 - Second by Ms. Jenkins, that opens for discussion.

3:42:36 Who would like to start us off?

3:42:38 - I can.

3:42:46 - And board members, I would just, I mean,

3:42:48 we probably have time, but you might need to refresh

3:42:50 on your, I know I had to, so, on your e-agenda.

3:42:57 All right, Ms. McDougall, you have the mic.

3:43:02 - I don’t think it’s on, is it on?

3:43:04 - Yeah. - Okay, sorry.

3:43:09 - Yes, I think if anybody has been following,

3:43:12 and I’ve been on the board when we started this whole thing,

3:43:15 back in, it seems like forever.

3:43:19 And I have always been a proponent of what can we do

3:43:21 to keep students in school and keep them safe.

3:43:24 And I’m following the mitigation recommendations

3:43:27 that have been out there from medical experts in our CDC,

3:43:33 along with our Department of Health.

3:43:34 And people have talked about the Department of Health.

3:43:37 Well, when you look at the Department of Health,

3:43:38 they really had no, in my opinion,

3:43:42 they had no option except to follow exactly

3:43:44 what the governor had stated.

3:43:47 And previous to what the governor came out with,

3:43:51 it was clear that hand washing, social distancing,

3:43:56 cleaning surfaces, and wearing a face covering

3:44:00 is what will help stop the mitigation.

3:44:02 Is this a cure-all?

3:44:04 Absolutely not, no one’s ever said it was.

3:44:06 But I believe that we owe it to keep our students in school.

3:44:11 And one thing, we’re talking about the quarantines,

3:44:13 and our numbers are outrageous, quite frankly.

3:44:17 I think we all agree on that.

3:44:20 So I was talking to Ms. Moore.

3:44:22 And Ms. Moore, if I’m wrong, please come and correct me.

3:44:25 But one of the mitigations, what the CDC has said,

3:44:28 that if face masks are worn appropriately,

3:44:34 and in like a whole classroom is wearing them,

3:44:39 and they’re socially distanced,

3:44:41 then if there should be one positive case,

3:44:44 then we don’t have to quarantine

3:44:47 anybody who’s not showing, who’s asymptomatic.

3:44:51 So I’m really hoping that this will help mitigate

3:44:55 the 6,000 people we have right now on today’s numbers,

3:45:00 because it’s a lot, and people are not in school,

3:45:04 and they need to be in school to learn.

3:45:06 So I am in favor of this emergency,

3:45:09 and it is, I understand it’s a temporary

3:45:11 that we would revisit, which I think is appropriate.

3:45:16 But I really feel that it’s needed to get kids back in school

3:45:20 and have our staff and students safe.

3:45:26 - Thank you, Ms. McDougall, who would like to speak next?

3:45:30 - Ms. Shrinken, you are on.

3:45:33 - Thank you.

3:45:35 I just want to make it clear to members of the public

3:45:38 that yes, I did call for this emergency meeting,

3:45:41 but I am not the one who scheduled the meeting.

3:45:44 I would have had it on a Saturday or Sunday,

3:45:46 if I could have, when a lot more people are off.

3:45:49 So I just want to make that very clear.

3:45:52 I do also want to say a couple of things

3:45:54 that we all know are really important.

3:45:56 I just want to bring it to the forefront.

3:45:58 Since August 2nd, when staff returned to buildings,

3:46:00 we’ve had over 3,000 cases of COVID.

3:46:03 Tuesday’s dashboard, 546 new cases,

3:46:06 Friday’s dashboard, 784 new cases.

3:46:09 That’s 1,330 new cases in Brevard Public Schools.

3:46:13 86% of those positive cases are students.

3:46:20 10 of our staff members are in ICU, four on ventilators.

3:46:23 We have a student in the ICU who is also ventilated,

3:46:26 and two staff members have died this school year alone.

3:46:30 (audio drops out)

3:46:34 I had requested from our staff, who is beyond overworked,

3:46:39 to continuously give us updates every single day

3:46:43 of the amount of cases and quarantines

3:46:46 that we have currently, every morning by 8.30, that morning.

3:46:50 And currently we have 1,039 confirmed cases that are active,

3:46:56 and we have 6,630 active quarantines.

3:47:00 Again, 86% of those positive cases are students,

3:47:03 which means we have 900 positive active cases of students

3:47:06 currently in Brevard Public Schools.

3:47:09 I wrote down two quotes from some of our speakers.

3:47:12 If we do not have safe schools,

3:47:13 we do not have a safe community.

3:47:15 And public health and public education are interdependent.

3:47:18 And I feel like that was really important.

3:47:21 I think another thing that we need to talk about is,

3:47:24 our administrators are struggling,

3:47:26 but they’re also struggling to support their students

3:47:29 who are suffering trauma

3:47:31 from their parents being in the hospital.

3:47:34 I’ve heard some really sad stories.

3:47:38 I had one administrator in particular that said

3:47:41 that their school is really struggling

3:47:43 because there are three children

3:47:44 associated to that parent who may not make it.

3:47:47 And that is a worry that I am concerned about as well.

3:47:53 It’s been said a lot that this is political,

3:47:55 and I feel the need to say it.

3:47:59 Yes, I’m a registered Democrat.

3:48:02 I’m a minority in Brevard.

3:48:03 I’m a minority in District 3.

3:48:05 I’m a minority in turnout of voters.

3:48:07 But yet the only person who voted against masks last year

3:48:10 is no longer sitting on this dais.

3:48:12 And there’s a reason for that

3:48:13 because Republicans care about their kids too.

3:48:16 So stop with the political game.

3:48:20 Ms. Belford, at a Board of Self-Evaluation,

3:48:23 we had one member earlier say that last year

3:48:28 they didn’t visit more than one school due to COVID.

3:48:32 We had an offsite meeting on Tuesday

3:48:34 prior to our board meeting.

3:48:36 We had a board member who didn’t like to hear

3:48:38 about the stories of our staff members

3:48:40 and what they’re going through,

3:48:41 which I’m not allowed to even talk about here on this dais,

3:48:43 but I know we’re all well aware.

3:48:47 And I’m not gonna sit here and go on and on,

3:48:51 but I cannot stay silent when we have members of this board

3:48:54 who last year were banging their fists,

3:48:57 begging people to wear their mask

3:48:58 to keep our students and our staff safe.

3:49:01 And this year it suddenly has changed.

3:49:04 I will defend my husband’s life, my family’s life,

3:49:08 my community’s life, my colleagues’ life.

3:49:10 I will not be quiet.

3:49:12 This is a risk to our community.

3:49:14 And I will absolutely not be

3:49:15 on the wrong side of history here.

3:49:17 This is not political for me.

3:49:19 This is personal for me.

3:49:20 And I’ve been this way since the day I’ve been on this board

3:49:23 and you all know where I stand,

3:49:24 so I absolutely support this mandate.

3:49:26 Thank you.

3:49:31 - Ms. Campbell, you wanna weigh in?

3:49:43 - I do have some concerns.

3:49:45 I listened to the two-hour video yesterday

3:49:50 of the judge sharing his opinion.

3:49:53 And I do have some concerns that we would put something

3:49:55 into effect before it is official,

3:49:56 even though he was pretty clear that whatever he signs,

3:50:00 it’s gonna be consistent with what he said on Friday.

3:50:04 But I have concerns about yanking back and forth,

3:50:07 and I really would not want to do that to our public.

3:50:10 And I would encourage the board

3:50:11 to take that into consideration.

3:50:14 We’ve been given a draft.

3:50:16 There are a few things that I would like

3:50:20 for us to consider when we get to the discussion.

3:50:23 I would like for us to consider a parental opt-out.

3:50:28 I would like for us to consider a short timeframe.

3:50:30 I know the maximum we can do in emergency policy is 90 days,

3:50:34 but consider max of 30 days.

3:50:37 I know it says we’ll review it every 30 days,

3:50:39 but we can also, I will have to ask Mr. Gibbs,

3:50:44 but could we make it for 30 days,

3:50:45 and then if the majority of the board voted to extend it,

3:50:50 I know you’d have to answer that.

3:50:52 I’d like to ask if we could make this buses only.

3:50:55 I’d like to ask if we could make this adults only.

3:50:59 I’d like to ask if we could include

3:51:01 the pre-K through second exemption like we did last year.

3:51:05 I agree with Ms. McDougall.

3:51:07 If this passes today, I intend to ask as an additional item

3:51:12 that it wasn’t something we voted on,

3:51:13 so I think we could do it without a vote

3:51:15 that we recommend to staff to change

3:51:17 our quarantine procedures to align with the CDC procedure.

3:51:20 Our definition for close contact in schools,

3:51:22 which says for students in the K-12 setting,

3:51:27 if within three to six feet,

3:51:31 if both excludes those within three to six feet,

3:51:33 if both infect the student and expose student correctly

3:51:36 and consistently wore well-fitting masks the entire time.

3:51:40 So I know that’s different from the state order,

3:51:42 but if it does pass today,

3:51:44 I intend to ask for us to do that

3:51:46 because I agree that that would reduce our quarantines

3:51:50 that we have such a high number of.

3:51:57 Someone said it’s not okay for students

3:52:00 and staff to get sick.

3:52:04 And I agree.

3:52:07 It is difficult.

3:52:09 We are going through something that’s very difficult.

3:52:15 It is not easy for anybody.

3:52:17 And I don’t, yeah, we still hear a few people coming in

3:52:20 saying it’s not real, but for the most part,

3:52:22 people are living in the world of reality,

3:52:23 which is it’s real.

3:52:25 Their willingness to do certain things is different,

3:52:28 but I really don’t talk to very many people

3:52:30 who still think this is all hope.

3:52:35 At the same time, I have some data

3:52:39 that I’d like to share with you from some other states,

3:52:42 which is not necessarily awesome and encouraging.

3:52:49 But the state of Oregon,

3:52:52 which has a statewide mask mandate,

3:52:55 they have not started school yet,

3:52:57 they’ll start within the next week,

3:52:59 has a higher vaccination rate,

3:53:01 just for reference, the state of Florida’s vaccination rate,

3:53:04 at least one dose as of yesterday,

3:53:07 63.6% in Florida, fully vaccinated, 52.6%.

3:53:12 Oregon is sitting at 63.8 and 57.9, which is higher.

3:53:18 They are currently having a spike,

3:53:22 just like we are higher than ever before.

3:53:26 Like I said, they haven’t started school yet,

3:53:27 so we don’t have school data to compare.

3:53:29 The state of Louisiana, the day before school started,

3:53:33 now they are sitting at a lower vaccination rate

3:53:35 on both counts, fully vaccinated

3:53:36 and having received one dose.

3:53:39 But the state of Louisiana started

3:53:40 around the same time we do.

3:53:41 The date before they started,

3:53:42 the governor issued a statewide mask mandate,

3:53:44 which included the schools.

3:53:47 Since August the 9th, there was one school

3:53:52 to have a kind of a statewide school dashboard,

3:53:55 similar to what we had last year.

3:53:56 Since August the 9th, they’d had 2,094 cases,

3:53:59 which passed their previous peak of January of 1,800 cases.

3:54:03 And before you think, well, that’s not as high as us,

3:54:05 I have to share that that was only 30%

3:54:07 of their schools reporting.

3:54:10 For the week ending August 11th,

3:54:13 they had 5,637 children ages five through 17,

3:54:19 which was more than double their previous peak in January.

3:54:26 Now, again, lower vaccination rate,

3:54:29 but they have a statewide mask mandate.

3:54:31 And then Hawaii.

3:54:34 Hawaii has one of the highest rates of vaccination.

3:54:37 They have 74% of their population

3:54:39 that have received at least one dose.

3:54:41 They have 55.2% that is fully vaccinated.

3:54:44 They’re also an island and have a little bit more control

3:54:47 of who comes in and out,

3:54:49 not like Australia and places like that,

3:54:50 but it’s been a little different for them.

3:54:54 Before they started school,

3:54:57 the state, they’re different from their states.

3:54:59 They have Hawaii public schools.

3:55:01 It’s like the whole state is one school district.

3:55:05 State, if this is from an article,

3:55:08 right before they started school,

3:55:10 state officials assured parents

3:55:12 that their children would be safe,

3:55:13 saying that universal mask wearing vaccinations

3:55:16 and social distancing would keep the potential

3:55:18 for new cases down.

3:55:21 And 47%, and I have to pull it up really quick,

3:55:26 but 47% of their children ages 12 through 17

3:55:29 had had at least one shot.

3:55:30 I’m pretty sure with that looking that that’s higher

3:55:32 than what it is here in state of Florida.

3:55:36 They are averaging 657 new cases a day,

3:55:40 which is their highest level since the start of the pandemic.

3:55:43 Just for reference, in early July,

3:55:46 they were down to 50 new cases a day average.

3:55:50 And they’re now at 657.

3:55:51 They are having a really crazy fight.

3:55:55 And I say all that to say,

3:55:57 it’s not something that we want to say,

3:56:01 but the truth is that there is no way

3:56:05 that we can guarantee that our students and staff

3:56:09 will not be exposed to the virus

3:56:12 with or without a mask mandate.

3:56:13 And Hawaii, by the way, has a statewide mask mandate,

3:56:16 which includes, we can’t guarantee it,

3:56:20 which is one of the reasons why I asked,

3:56:22 and I know I believe Ms. Jenkins asked as well,

3:56:24 Dr. Mullins, back in a couple of weeks

3:56:27 before the school started when we saw the surge,

3:56:30 that we reopen Brevard Virtual School

3:56:32 because I was telling families we can’t guarantee.

3:56:36 And if your family is one of those families

3:56:37 that has really scary situations,

3:56:39 I urge you to do virtual school.

3:56:41 I know it’s challenging.

3:56:43 I don’t want to have to homeschool myself.

3:56:46 I would do it if I had to.

3:56:48 But we can’t guarantee that.

3:56:50 We’ve never been able to guarantee that

3:56:52 with or without a mask mandate.

3:56:54 The only way that we could guarantee

3:56:57 that cases wouldn’t spread in our schools

3:56:59 is to close schools.

3:57:01 And even though last year we heard quite a few people

3:57:05 before school started through emails

3:57:08 and through public comment, don’t start.

3:57:11 Delay the start.

3:57:12 We’re not ready to start.

3:57:14 We’re not really hearing much of that anymore

3:57:15 because we all recognize what a horrible thing that was

3:57:18 the spring before, and actually we can get it done.

3:57:20 I know we’re in a hard situation,

3:57:21 but even now I’m hearing very few.

3:57:24 Out of all the hundreds and hundreds of emails

3:57:25 we received just in the last week,

3:57:27 I’ve maybe only seen two that said just shut it all down.

3:57:33 And believe me, there are days, Dr. Mullins can tell you,

3:57:36 that I’ve said let’s just shut it all down.

3:57:38 ‘Cause that’s the only way we can guarantee.

3:57:41 We can’t do it any other way.

3:57:46 There is no way to make this decision

3:57:48 for any of the five of us and say that we represented

3:57:51 our constituents because our constituents are divided.

3:57:54 And there is no, as much as I am looking at the example

3:57:57 of King Solomon to try to find a way to just make it

3:58:01 so clear and satisfy everyone, we can’t.

3:58:04 We will either be listening to one side

3:58:06 or listening to the other side, which means we have to look

3:58:08 at the preponderance of information that we have.

3:58:11 I do believe this.

3:58:12 I believe that there’s not a person in this room

3:58:14 that doesn’t have children’s best interests at heart.

3:58:18 I believe what we’re, the difference is,

3:58:20 is how we go about it.

3:58:20 Are we looking at one aspect of it?

3:58:22 Are we looking at the whole child?

3:58:24 Are we looking at, we’re just looking at things differently.

3:58:27 I think it would be wrong for any of us on this board

3:58:31 or in the community to look at this board and say,

3:58:33 you don’t care about kids.

3:58:36 You don’t care about your community.

3:58:39 I don’t think that’s, even if I don’t agree

3:58:41 with everybody on the diet.

3:58:44 So, like I said, as we move forward,

3:58:47 I intend to ask for some of those changes,

3:58:49 that every single one of them may get struck down,

3:58:51 but I’m gonna try anyway, and.

3:58:57 - Thank you, Ms. Campbell, Mr. Susan.

3:59:02 - Do I have a mic? - You do.

3:59:04 - Can everybody hear me?

3:59:06 All right, so I came here today because I wanted

3:59:10 to be able to hear if there was something

3:59:13 that would trigger an emergency meeting.

3:59:15 What would it be?

3:59:17 Is it that there’s an astronomical amount

3:59:19 of cases that jumped up?

3:59:21 Is it that there’s a case that now is in effect

3:59:25 that may not get overturned?

3:59:27 Is it that there’s a lot of things

3:59:28 that may have occurred that?

3:59:30 Because I will tell you, regardless of how you feel

3:59:33 about my board members that I serve with,

3:59:36 I respect every one of them for the points

3:59:38 that they bring to the table.

3:59:40 Because that is true governance in Brevard.

3:59:43 So whether we disagree with the way it happens,

3:59:46 you respect everybody.

3:59:48 So I was excited, and I’m standing here with you today

3:59:51 looking at all of the stuff that I had,

3:59:54 only 42 hours to look over from the subject

3:59:57 and one hour to look over from the actual policy

4:00:01 that was printed here, and I started to dig in.

4:00:06 First off, I found out that hospitalizations,

4:00:11 quarantines, COVID positives from both staff

4:00:15 and students is going down.

4:00:18 This is not my opinion.

4:00:21 This comes from the CDC and our own data.

4:00:28 Oh, did I say that this is illegal?

4:00:31 This is an illegal motion for policy right now.

4:00:37 Please, we don’t want to stop the meeting.

4:00:40 ‘Cause Ms. Belford will get fired up.

4:00:43 She has the respect for that too.

4:00:48 So let me get started.

4:00:50 I’d like to put into the minutes,

4:00:53 because there has been questions in the past

4:00:56 about some of my stuff that was Googled

4:00:58 instead of looked up, and I wanted to be able

4:01:01 to provide my school board members

4:01:03 what I was going to talk about.

4:01:05 I apologize about not giving it to you ahead of time,

4:01:08 but we did have an emergency, and we didn’t have time,

4:01:10 and I literally had these off the press,

4:01:12 not even five minutes before we came into the meeting.

4:01:15 So I am going to, everything that we talk about here,

4:01:18 I am going to put into the minutes as we move.

4:01:21 And I’ll give Ms. Escobar a copy

4:01:25 at the end of the meeting of everything that he said.

4:01:38 So let’s get started.

4:01:41 Board members, if you’ll take a look

4:01:44 at the Ms. Aguirre’s daily quarantine list,

4:01:51 and if you’ll look at the final page,

4:01:54 which says August 30th, 2021.

4:02:00 If you will notice, our overall quarantines

4:02:04 associated to confirmed cases went down 27% since Friday.

4:02:10 Our overall quarantines to home cases went down 29%.

4:02:17 Our overall student quarantines in general

4:02:21 went down 27 more percent.

4:02:24 Our overall employee quarantines also went down 18%,

4:02:31 and our student cases went down 28%.

4:02:37 Now some people may say it’s a Monday,

4:02:40 and that is an anomaly that occurred

4:02:42 on the data sets which I presented,

4:02:45 but the key is is it was not as significant as it is today.

4:02:49 And you can’t just take that piece of data.

4:02:52 You have to look at all the other data.

4:02:55 When you find the consistency of numbers going down,

4:02:59 then you bring this data into play.

4:03:04 Next, take a look at Parrish Medical.

4:03:08 COVID-19 hospitalizations off of their Facebook page.

4:03:12 You will notice that on August 29th,

4:03:16 or from August 24th to August 29th,

4:03:19 Parrish Medical’s hospitalizations went down 25%.

4:03:24 Now this is significant because if you guys

4:03:26 have been watching the Facebook pages,

4:03:27 you will find that there has been an up and down

4:03:31 for a while, but now you will see

4:03:33 that they are starting to come down more consistently.

4:03:37 And that’s why I provided five days worth

4:03:40 of COVID-19 hospitalization rates from Parrish Medical.

4:03:44 And to be truthful, the ICU and intubated rates

4:03:49 remain the same, but that’s because those last longer.

4:03:52 When you look at data sets, first cases,

4:03:54 then hospitalizations, then ICUs and deaths, okay?

4:03:58 I also am submitting into evidence,

4:04:01 or to the minutes, Health First’s Facebook page,

4:04:06 showing five days worth of numbers

4:04:09 coming down in hospitalizations.

4:04:13 This shows a seven, and just now,

4:04:18 another day just got posted, not less than 30 minutes ago,

4:04:21 showing an increase from 9% over five days.

4:04:26 Numbers are coming down.

4:04:30 I also would ask, and I don’t expect you guys

4:04:32 to know all this real quick, so if you needed a second job

4:04:35 and looked through it because of efficacy.

4:04:37 I would also like to ask you to look at the CDC,

4:04:40 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

4:04:42 COVID Data Tracker, which seems to be

4:04:47 on pace and right now.

4:04:50 So some of you are looking at the DOH numbers

4:04:53 and they’re delayed.

4:04:55 They’re delayed by a week, and that’s because

4:04:56 a lot of the numbers come in and they show the trends.

4:04:59 The CDC pulls from multiple data sets.

4:05:01 They’re literally up to date.

4:05:04 In looking at that, cases per 1,000 down 1.7%.

4:05:13 They do not record deaths, so I will not speak to that,

4:05:16 but I don’t have any data sets on that.

4:05:19 Positivity, testing positivity.

4:05:23 Now mind you, we are mostly only testing

4:05:27 individuals that have symptoms.

4:05:30 So this is not a data set that is being controlled

4:05:33 because of more testing.

4:05:34 This is being a data set controlled

4:05:36 that we are actually going down.

4:05:38 Down 3.44%, testing volume down 19.83%,

4:05:44 new admissions into hospitalizations down 6.63%,

4:05:48 number of beds used inside of our hospitals down 2.36%.

4:05:54 Number of ICU beds stayed the same.

4:06:00 Positivity case down 3.44%, I stated that.

4:06:04 Now if you’ll move on, the other number

4:06:07 that is very key to know is that our county

4:06:13 is number 40 out of 67 in case rate per 1,000.

4:06:19 In the last seven days, 40.

4:06:23 We are not looking at a massive amount in front of us.

4:06:28 We look at a massive amount behind them.

4:06:30 I just will tell you, I listened to the judge

4:06:35 for two and a half hours.

4:06:36 He gives great lessons on history and everything else.

4:06:38 And I looked for all of the data sets that he had

4:06:41 and he presented some good data sets.

4:06:43 But I have been looking the whole time

4:06:46 where I could find hard data.

4:06:49 And this is what I would like to present

4:06:50 and put into the minutes.

4:06:56 Next thing, I would like to point out

4:06:59 the effectiveness of what we are about to do.

4:07:02 Currently, the majority of our staff in secondary

4:07:06 does not wear a mask.

4:07:08 Currently, the majority of our students

4:07:10 in secondary do not wear a mask.

4:07:13 It is a larger number in some

4:07:15 and a smaller majority in others.

4:07:17 But I will tell you, for the most part,

4:07:20 and that is an anecdotal evidence

4:07:23 that has not been provable

4:07:25 that I can’t put in the minutes,

4:07:26 but if you sit there and ask those principals

4:07:29 and admin and teachers, they will pack that data up.

4:07:34 Currently, if we don’t have teachers

4:07:40 that are effectively wearing them

4:07:42 and students that are effectively wearing them,

4:07:45 how do we expect them to effectively push it

4:07:49 and monitor it and enforce it?

4:07:51 It’s a difficult situation.

4:07:55 Also, we will not be the ones that are in the classroom

4:08:01 that are trying to enforce the policy.

4:08:04 I substituted last year.

4:08:07 This was absolutely difficult to watch

4:08:11 as kids wore their masks below their nose,

4:08:13 which is stated in the policy that they have to do,

4:08:16 kids that have it half hanging off,

4:08:18 kids that have all that as they pile to the doors,

4:08:20 and the effectiveness of it is held in question.

4:08:23 And I have said this from the beginning.

4:08:25 This is not something new that I have been stating.

4:08:29 How do you expect a bus driver to be safely driving a bus

4:08:33 and look up in the rear view mirror constantly to say,

4:08:35 “Pull your mask up.

4:08:38 “Stop, Johnny, put your mask on.

4:08:40 “Have you put your mask on before you get in?”

4:08:44 How do you expect administrators,

4:08:47 administrators who are now, because of an MOU at the union,

4:08:51 forced to do all of these medical opt-outs

4:08:55 and everything else that we’re about to talk about?

4:08:58 Because the MOU from the union, that I know of last,

4:09:02 says that they are not to do that at all.

4:09:05 How do you effectively ask to enforce a mask mandate

4:09:10 if the teachers in the classroom are asked not to enforce it?

4:09:15 You have less than six principals/administrators

4:09:19 that are literally asking more than one, two, three, four,

4:09:24 five teachers to help them on quarantines right now,

4:09:28 and you’re gonna expect them to monitor these certificates

4:09:32 on top of other things.

4:09:34 It’s difficult.

4:09:36 This has been consistent

4:09:37 from what I’ve said from the beginning.

4:09:41 So let’s get into the policy.

4:09:43 Here’s where I have some issues.

4:09:47 First piece, Judge Cooper, Florida Circuit Court

4:09:51 for the Second Circuit of Florida,

4:09:54 found that the Centers for Disease Control

4:09:55 is the preeminent authority in the United States

4:09:58 for Infectious Disease Control.

4:10:00 He quoted the CDC to be used inside of statute.

4:10:04 He found that they have been used.

4:10:06 They are not the predominantly authoritative.

4:10:09 They just lost a Supreme Court case

4:10:12 that they were trying to use over,

4:10:14 they removed their emergency powers

4:10:17 in dealing with temporary landlord moratorium.

4:10:20 They are not a authority that can give and demand.

4:10:25 They can only recommend.

4:10:28 So when we look at that for a piece,

4:10:30 look at how the CDC’s recommendations have changed.

4:10:36 If we are looking for the CDC, the only thing

4:10:39 that has been consistent about the CDC’s recommendations

4:10:42 on mitigation strategies is that they are not consistent.

4:10:46 That is the consistency that they changed them.

4:10:50 And I am not in any way trying to crash the CDC.

4:10:54 I am purposely saying that they are not a governing board

4:10:58 and that they are not consistent with their quarantine.

4:11:05 Goes on.

4:11:06 Legislature intends during an extended,

4:11:08 it says moreover, Section 252.36,

4:11:11 Section Perin 1, Perin C, of the Florida statutes states,

4:11:16 the legislature intends during an extended

4:11:20 public health emergency such that the COVID-19 pandemic

4:11:25 there should be a presumption that the K through 12

4:11:28 public schools, to the greatest extent possible,

4:11:30 should remain open so long as the health and safety

4:11:33 of students and school personnel can be maintained

4:11:36 by specific public health mitigation strategies

4:11:39 recommended by federal or state agencies

4:11:42 for education settings.

4:11:45 Well, that sounds pretty good.

4:11:47 The problem is, is that the title of Section 253.36

4:11:52 is the Governor’s Emergency Powers.

4:11:57 So if the Governor’s Emergency Powers are being quoted,

4:12:01 then we should follow the Florida DOH rules

4:12:04 rather than the CDC rules,

4:12:06 which have already been struck down in the Supreme Court.

4:12:11 I call into question the argument that gives us

4:12:14 even the ability to give this policy.

4:12:17 Next, next section, the CDC qualifies

4:12:20 as a federal health agency as specified in Florida statute.

4:12:24 Moreover, CDC guidelines explicitly recommend

4:12:27 all individual students as well as staff

4:12:29 wear face coverings while inside,

4:12:32 whether they have been vaccinated or not,

4:12:34 until the spread of COVID-19 is better in control.

4:12:37 That’s great.

4:12:39 They are making a recommendation.

4:12:40 There is no rulemaking authority.

4:12:42 We follow the Florida DOH

4:12:44 if there’s a Florida governor’s mandate

4:12:47 for emergency ruling.

4:12:57 It goes on to start talking about not only

4:13:00 that was the justification for calling the meeting.

4:13:03 Now it goes on to say to mask mandate,

4:13:07 but then we mask mandate if we have these other things

4:13:12 that are allowed to not have to be mask mandated.

4:13:15 My argument for bringing this up

4:13:18 is that we are creating a mask mandate

4:13:21 that is basically ineffective

4:13:24 because you are creating a group and subsets

4:13:27 that are going to not wear their mask,

4:13:29 which effectively is going

4:13:31 to not make a mask mandate effective.

4:13:35 Medical certification.

4:13:37 A face covering shall not be required

4:13:39 for persons who present full district staff

4:13:41 with a certification from a licensed healthcare provider

4:13:45 that the person has medical, physical,

4:13:47 or psychological contradiction

4:13:49 that prevents the person from being able

4:13:51 to safely wear a mask covering.

4:13:54 Okay, we’ve got a lot of contradictions,

4:13:58 which will create a lot of risk

4:14:01 because our administrators are not medical professionals.

4:14:05 They cannot look at a form and we are not providing one

4:14:09 to say that this is what is a contradiction.

4:14:13 We do not want our administrators to be sitting there

4:14:18 and making the choice of whether they should

4:14:20 or not make a mask when we don’t even stipulate

4:14:23 what that looks like

4:14:24 and we haven’t even trained them to do it.

4:14:31 IEPs, 504s.

4:14:33 A face covering shall not be required

4:14:35 for persons who have documented through an IEP or 504 plan

4:14:38 that the person has medical, physical,

4:14:40 or psychological contradiction

4:14:41 that prevents the person from being able to safely wear.

4:14:47 Okay, 504s, you guys, IEPs, they include gifted children.

4:14:52 They include students with disabilities.

4:14:54 They make up almost 30% of our population

4:14:57 and in some schools make up more in secondary.

4:15:01 It is a difficult thing when you are going to say

4:15:04 that you are going to give a medical opt-out,

4:15:07 then you’re gonna give a 504 and an IEP opt-out.

4:15:11 Here’s one, strenuous physical activity.

4:15:15 A face covering shall not be required

4:15:17 for any person inside or outside

4:15:19 of any school district facility

4:15:20 while such person is engaged in strenuous physical activity.

4:15:25 That’s gymnasiums.

4:15:27 That’s your workout centers.

4:15:29 That’s a kid walking up a stairwell

4:15:31 if they wanna make the argument.

4:15:33 What is the effectiveness of a policy

4:15:37 if those are the stipulation?

4:15:40 And it does not go on to say who’s going to monitor that.

4:15:44 So if a student is going up the stairs and they take it off,

4:15:49 who’s gonna tell them put it back on?

4:15:50 Well, that was a strenuous activity.

4:15:52 It was strenuous for me to walk.

4:15:54 I’m a former teacher in this district

4:15:56 who will tell you that kids will use every single opportunity

4:15:59 to try to get out of what they don’t want.

4:16:02 And I’m not telling you this because anything else

4:16:05 because it’s putting our teachers and our staff

4:16:07 in a situation where it’s difficult to hold.

4:16:10 They can’t sit there and effectively look

4:16:12 at these stipulations and make it to where

4:16:16 it is effectively going to keep a mask mandate.

4:16:19 Now, whether you believe in mask mandates or not,

4:16:22 this is not a mask mandate.

4:16:25 And it is not effective cloth face coverings.

4:16:30 Commercially produced or home face cloth coverings

4:16:33 are acceptable for compliance with this policy

4:16:36 provided that the face covering consists

4:16:38 of multiple layers of cloth resulting

4:16:41 in the blocking of light when it’s held up to light,

4:16:43 covers both the mouth, the nose, and fits snugly,

4:16:49 against the sides of the person’s face with no gaps.

4:16:53 Okay, again, effectiveness of that.

4:16:58 First thing, when you look at it,

4:17:00 what teacher is going to hold up a mask

4:17:03 to look at it to see about the light going through?

4:17:06 What teacher is going to tell the kids?

4:17:08 I mean, how many times have we been out in the community

4:17:12 where there’s a mask mandate and everybody wears it here?

4:17:15 I’m not saying that it’s,

4:17:17 I’m telling you it’s effectively difficult to enforce.

4:17:21 And I’m telling you also, as I stated before,

4:17:25 that students and teachers that are not wearing them now

4:17:27 are not going to effectively enforce.

4:17:31 It is a difficult situation.

4:17:39 Section five, this emergency policy becomes effective

4:17:42 immediately upon approval and will remain

4:17:46 in effect for 90 days.

4:17:49 A five-day grace period may be extended,

4:17:52 may, to those who needed to obtain exemption documentation.

4:17:59 The school board will review the emergency policy

4:18:01 every 30 days and authorizes the superintendent

4:18:04 to end the face covering requirement

4:18:06 if levels of the community transmission drop

4:18:09 to a moderate transmission as defined by the CDC

4:18:12 to be no less than 50 new cases per 100,000 people.

4:18:20 That’s less than 1% of our population.

4:18:23 That is an unattainable number

4:18:26 that will never be obtained inside the 90 days.

4:18:29 So when we look at past practices of under that,

4:18:33 with the current pandemic the way it is,

4:18:35 this is 90-day policy that can be reviewed only if

4:18:40 it has a 1% effectiveness.

4:18:45 Now, did I mention that right now this is illegal?

4:18:54 All right.

4:18:57 I truly was hoping that there would be some sort of evidence

4:19:00 that I missed when I came here today.

4:19:01 And I apologize ‘cause Chairperson Belford

4:19:04 has not spoken yet and that is not fair for me to say.

4:19:06 But so far, I have not found anything more

4:19:09 than what we already knew prior to Friday.

4:19:13 And might I say that if we are,

4:19:16 I’ll get to that in a minute.

4:19:17 We had less than 42 hours to review a policy

4:19:20 that was subject and less than a couple of hours

4:19:23 to get a perfect one.

4:19:24 That is not how we govern.

4:19:28 We in this county have taken every slow roll attempt

4:19:33 in every single policy we have ever written.

4:19:36 Every single time that we have come up on a policy.

4:19:40 We are in the ninth hour and parents are screaming

4:19:43 across the district, guys, wait a minute, wait a minute.

4:19:46 You should have made these decisions 60 days ago.

4:19:48 And I have bought into that policy governance

4:19:51 because we want to make it right.

4:19:53 But to give a policy of 42 hours ahead of time

4:19:57 for an emergency meeting on a Monday,

4:19:59 when there is only a governor’s or a court case

4:20:02 that might have been the trigger,

4:20:05 that’s not good governance.

4:20:07 It goes against every single fabric we’ve ever had.

4:20:13 I want to get into the policy, Mr. Gibson.

4:20:21 When does the Judge Cooper’s judgment become law?

4:20:25 - He signs the order.

4:20:27 - And has he signed the order?

4:20:29 - Not that I’m aware of.

4:20:31 - And has he given indication of when that order may come?

4:20:34 - As early as Tuesday.

4:20:36 His order was he hoped to sign by Tuesday.

4:20:39 - So Mr. Gibbs, being the fact that the judge

4:20:42 has not signed it and that is the trigger to make that law,

4:20:46 is this policy going against the rule of law?

4:20:52 - Going against the OH order.

4:20:54 - Which was the rule of law up until Judge Cooper made it.

4:20:57 - Until he signs the order.

4:20:59 - Sure.

4:21:02 Now, Mr. Gibbs, if in the event that the judge gives a stay

4:21:08 and we still have this policy in effect,

4:21:11 we would still be not in compliance of the law.

4:21:15 - Yeah.

4:21:16 - And if we have this policy and it goes into effect,

4:21:23 the judge issues the stay and then we have the policy

4:21:27 in effect, ultimately can the parents file suit

4:21:30 against us for not having followed the law?

4:21:35 - I don’t know that the parents can sue on the DOH.

4:21:38 That would be the DOE trying to enforce their order

4:21:41 or the DOH potentially bringing action

4:21:43 to enforce their order.

4:21:45 They could, the parents could sue

4:21:46 under another potential claim,

4:21:49 but that’s what you’re seeing right now

4:21:51 with the DOE cases being opened against the district.

4:21:57 - Okay, thank you, Mr. Gibbs.

4:21:59 Just so that everybody knows,

4:22:01 I let Mr. Gibbs know

4:22:01 that I was gonna have those questions for him yesterday

4:22:03 so that I would not have any kind of a back and forth

4:22:07 out of respect for him.

4:22:09 Okay, now all this comes into effect because of one thing.

4:22:12 And I’ll tell you from my personal experience

4:22:14 why it fires me up.

4:22:15 Because in 2000, I worked as the legislative coordinator

4:22:19 for Greenberg Traurig Law Firm.

4:22:21 And Greenberg Traurig Law Firm was the lead counsel

4:22:24 for George W. Bush against Al Gore.

4:22:27 So I sat through so many court cases

4:22:32 with the greatest minds in the country, James Baker.

4:22:36 We had the best attorneys, Barry Richards.

4:22:38 I could go down the line.

4:22:41 And I watched as it moved through local, state,

4:22:46 court of appeals, state, Supreme Court, federal court.

4:22:52 This is the first stop for this law.

4:22:56 And when you look at the path that it’s gonna go on,

4:23:01 it is irresponsible to try to put a policy in place

4:23:06 while we create a seesaw back and forth

4:23:09 of going back and forth, back and forth through it.

4:23:14 Because ultimately, even in the case in 2000,

4:23:18 there was one moment when the entire firm thought

4:23:21 that they had won.

4:23:23 And everybody gathered around.

4:23:25 And we were all getting ready to hear the verdict.

4:23:27 And one guy, James Baker, said,

4:23:29 don’t you start getting together, everybody get out.

4:23:33 And we heard at that moment

4:23:35 that it was going to the Supreme Court,

4:23:37 and they started counting in West Palm Beach.

4:23:39 This is a seesaw.

4:23:41 I have a personal with large experience here

4:23:45 with large cases that it is a seesaw.

4:23:47 And we don’t need to put the mental health of our people

4:23:50 into a seesaw back and forth over whether this is law,

4:23:53 whether that’s not putting our teachers in harm’s way.

4:23:57 And that is why this is a difficult situation for me.

4:24:00 Now I’m open.

4:24:01 I’m here to listen to any argument that we have.

4:24:04 But I am open.

4:24:05 But for these reasons, as it stands now,

4:24:08 I cannot support it.

4:24:09 Thank you.

4:24:15 - Yeah, I know.

4:24:19 I know that there was holding.

4:24:34 All right.

4:24:42 There.

4:24:43 All right.

4:24:45 I am going to be as brief as I can.

4:24:49 But no, that’s fine.

4:24:51 That’s fine.

4:24:52 It’s all good discussion.

4:24:55 So we are currently in a major crisis,

4:25:01 both for our schools and for our community.

4:25:03 And while much of the issues around this

4:25:07 have been politicized all around COVID,

4:25:10 and I know there are lots of strong emotions on all sides,

4:25:12 I would like to reframe the conversation momentarily

4:25:15 to a conversation around business continuity,

4:25:17 operational sustainability, economic impact,

4:25:20 critical mission and eruption,

4:25:22 and of course, health and safety.

4:25:25 For weeks, we have heard about positive cases

4:25:27 in our community growing,

4:25:28 and we’ve seen schools close,

4:25:29 spikes in positive cases and spikes in quarantines.

4:25:32 This isn’t new information for any of us

4:25:34 that are involved in schools.

4:25:35 However, I would like to share some data with you

4:25:39 that has not been directly discussed.

4:25:41 The week before school started,

4:25:43 the county case positivity per 100,000,

4:25:46 which I think we’ve all kind of agreed

4:25:48 is a pretty steady indicator of infection in community.

4:25:56 The week before school started,

4:25:58 the county case positivity per 100,000 was at 627.6,

4:26:02 which is astronomical compared to what we saw last year.

4:26:05 So I think we can all probably agree

4:26:07 that what we are seeing this year

4:26:09 is not at all like what we saw last year, just in general.

4:26:14 Excuse me.

4:26:16 So during that same time, our schools,

4:26:21 obviously we didn’t have students in school, right?

4:26:23 So we were primarily tracking faculty.

4:26:26 Our in the district case count was at 221 per 100,000.

4:26:33 The week that school started,

4:26:36 the county case positivity per 100,000 people

4:26:38 was at 710.7 per 100,000.

4:26:44 And our district cases per 100,000

4:26:46 were at 789, a little higher, excuse me for one.

4:27:08 So the second week of school,

4:27:11 the county rate was 744 positive cases per 100,000.

4:27:16 And the district rate was 1,275 per 100,000.

4:27:25 And last week, only our third week of school,

4:27:29 the county rate was 735.9 per 100,000.

4:27:34 And our district rate was 1,980 per 100,000.

4:27:43 Now, full disclosure, if you calculate these numbers,

4:27:47 you’re going to find that there’s gonna be

4:27:48 a smidge of discrepancy because the numbers I ran them on

4:27:51 were for 37,000 students.

4:27:54 And my update this morning was it was like 37,956

4:27:58 or something, right?

4:27:59 So they’re not going to be absolutely exact.

4:28:02 But didn’t really change the outcome or interpretation,

4:28:07 right, it’s gonna be minimal shift there.

4:28:11 So our health experts have told us

4:28:12 through the last year and a half

4:28:13 that we would see in our schools

4:28:14 what’s going on in our community,

4:28:16 but this is something entirely different.

4:28:18 Our schools are now significantly impacting our community.

4:28:21 And there is no doubt that we are seeing spread

4:28:23 in our schools, which we didn’t see last year.

4:28:27 Our healthcare system is struggling

4:28:29 and we as a system are contributing to that struggle.

4:28:37 Excuse me, for perspective.

4:28:42 Last week, there were 4,498 new cases

4:28:46 in the entire county between 820 and 826.

4:28:52 Out of those, 1,410 came from our school.

4:28:59 31% of the cases in Brevard County last week

4:29:04 came from our school.

4:29:06 And yet our school population makes up just over 11%

4:29:09 of the entire county population.

4:29:12 It’s hardly debatable that our schools

4:29:15 have the potential to be either economic drivers

4:29:17 or economic hindrances.

4:29:19 The success of our schools impacts our crime rate,

4:29:21 our property values, the desire for companies

4:29:23 to invest in our community,

4:29:24 our ability to provide the workforce for tomorrow,

4:29:26 and the wellbeing of our entire community.

4:29:31 Whether we want to admit it or not,

4:29:32 successful schools also allow our parents

4:29:34 to contribute to our local economy

4:29:36 by working while their children are in school.

4:29:39 Since schools open on August 10th,

4:29:40 we’ve quarantined nearly 16,000 students.

4:29:44 If half of those students require adult oversight

4:29:47 while not in school,

4:29:48 we’ve removed approximately 8,000 employees

4:29:50 from our workforce.

4:29:52 These are our nurses, our doctors, our firefighters,

4:29:54 our law enforcement officers, our bankers,

4:29:56 our food service workers, our grocery store employees,

4:29:59 our garbage collectors, our teachers,

4:30:00 our school administrators, our clinic nurses,

4:30:03 our crossing guards, and our local small businesses.

4:30:08 And what is most concerning about this information

4:30:11 is that the trend is showing significant increases,

4:30:13 even while other areas are showing decline.

4:30:16 And Mr. Susan mentioned earlier

4:30:18 that our numbers are going down significantly.

4:30:20 If you look at the Florida Department of Health

4:30:23 situation report from last week,

4:30:26 which ended on the 26th,

4:30:28 the Florida Department of Health

4:30:29 shows statewide positive cases declining

4:30:32 in every age group except for ages 12 to 19.

4:30:38 Where they are steadily growing across the state.

4:30:42 Should mention the trend data is not provided

4:30:43 for those 12 and under on that particular report.

4:30:48 This trend is supported by our numbers as well.

4:30:51 From the week of August 10th to the week of August 17th,

4:30:55 we saw a 40% increase in the number of reported cases

4:30:58 in the district with a 49% increase

4:31:01 in the number of students reporting positive.

4:31:04 I would suggest that we are not only facing

4:31:06 a physical health crisis but a mental health crisis

4:31:09 as a result of our current situation.

4:31:11 The mental health of both of our team,

4:31:13 both our team members and our students

4:31:16 is at significant risk.

4:31:18 Our administrative teams are working around the clock

4:31:20 on contact tracing and quarantining

4:31:21 while their hearts are breaking over their inability

4:31:23 to be in the classrooms observing instruction.

4:31:26 While programs intended to build relationships

4:31:28 between students and adults at the school

4:31:30 and to close achievement gaps

4:31:31 are being given up to extend lunches

4:31:33 to allow for social distancing.

4:31:35 Our teachers are struggling to serve students

4:31:38 who are in and out of class constantly

4:31:40 while fearing for their own safety

4:31:42 and the safety of their peers and students.

4:31:45 Our ESE providers are unable to provide services

4:31:47 and stressed about how they will even begin

4:31:50 to offer compensatory services

4:31:52 when only one out of 30 students

4:31:54 they’re supposed to see in a day is actually in school.

4:31:57 Our custodial staff is working tirelessly

4:31:59 to clean every service in the school

4:32:01 so their school does not test high

4:32:03 on our environmental testing.

4:32:05 Our bus drivers are struggling

4:32:06 to get students to school on time

4:32:08 and many times doing double routes in the afternoon

4:32:11 because there are not enough bus drivers

4:32:12 to serve our students.

4:32:14 We cannot get substitutes in our school

4:32:16 because they don’t feel safe coming into our schools

4:32:19 and that’s exacerbating our teacher stress.

4:32:22 And most importantly, our students

4:32:25 are stressing about their ability

4:32:27 to be academically successful

4:32:28 when trying to learn from home without access to instruction.

4:32:33 We have a serious crisis on our hands

4:32:36 and I suggest we have a very small window of opportunity

4:32:39 to do something to break the cycle and give some relief.

4:32:42 In full transparency, I anticipate as Mr. Susan indicated

4:32:46 that the governor is going to appeal the decision

4:32:48 made by the judge last week

4:32:50 and we may have to revisit a policy if we pass it

4:32:54 even sooner than the 30 days noted in the policy.

4:32:57 But right now, we have a small window

4:33:00 to try to interrupt the spread, to slow the bleed,

4:33:04 to give our schools a chance to get over the hump

4:33:06 and follow the trends we are seeing

4:33:08 in the rest of the community.

4:33:09 We are seeing the downturn we’ve heard is coming

4:33:12 except in our schools.

4:33:14 It’s definitely not happening there.

4:33:16 And one of my concerns, Mr. Susan,

4:33:18 and your data was absolutely accurate,

4:33:20 but one of my concerns is we typically see hospitalizations

4:33:25 increase about two weeks after cases spike.

4:33:28 So if we’re seeing spikes in cases in our students

4:33:32 and in our staff, then maybe that hospital downturn

4:33:36 is not at this point sustaining.

4:33:44 I don’t know that masks are the silver bullet

4:33:47 and I’m not in favor of long-term mask mandate.

4:33:51 But I do know without a doubt

4:33:52 that what we are currently doing is not working.

4:33:55 And the options available to us to respond

4:33:57 are incredibly limited.

4:33:59 I’ve been working with Representative Saroy

4:34:01 and the Department of Health to expand our testing options

4:34:03 in addition to the work our district team has been doing,

4:34:06 working on getting those private contractors

4:34:08 available for testing.

4:34:10 Ms. Moore and I met with Department of Health this morning

4:34:12 as well as with Representative Saroy

4:34:14 to try to get more home test kits available for families

4:34:17 that would be approved.

4:34:20 That will help us get children back in school sooner

4:34:22 and hopefully help us identify more asymptomatic positive.

4:34:26 Additionally, the CDC has changed

4:34:28 their close contact exemption for K-12 schools

4:34:31 to allow for avoidance of quarantine

4:34:32 if students are within three to six feet

4:34:34 and both students are masked

4:34:36 with the universal masking policy.

4:34:38 So that would also decrease quarantine numbers.

4:34:41 But we need to stop the spread.

4:34:43 We cannot make bigger classrooms

4:34:46 to allow for more social distancing.

4:34:48 We cannot create more teachers.

4:34:50 We have no way to stop parents

4:34:51 from sending their children to school sick.

4:34:53 And we cannot identify those students

4:34:55 who are presenting as asymptomatic

4:34:57 but are spreading the virus.

4:34:58 What we can do is very briefly

4:35:02 put a barrier between our students and their peers

4:35:04 and our faculty and staff members

4:35:07 for a short period of time to try to slow the spread.

4:35:10 I’m not interested in a long-term mask requirement.

4:35:13 I love seeing our students smiling faces

4:35:15 as much as any of us.

4:35:17 But if it means that we can break the cycle,

4:35:21 keep more of our students in school,

4:35:22 keep our team members safe and able to focus on instruction,

4:35:26 and if it means that we can begin

4:35:27 to get back to focusing on our mission

4:35:29 and fixing the missed opportunities from the past 18 months,

4:35:33 I would ask that we at least consider it.

4:35:35 I understand fully that this is probably not going

4:35:40 to be a long-term situation.

4:35:41 I anticipate we would have to revisit any policy we pass

4:35:45 probably long before the 30 days.

4:35:46 And quite frankly, I’m fine with that.

4:35:49 I’m not looking for long-term.

4:35:51 What I’m looking for is we basically have two options.

4:35:55 We close down, and I should probably say too,

4:35:59 if you look at the numbers in our schools,

4:36:02 my schools are drowning.

4:36:07 I should say my schools, the schools in my area, right?

4:36:09 Because the schools are all, but they are drowning.

4:36:12 So we closed down Madison Middle School

4:36:15 for two days to break the cycle.

4:36:17 We don’t have the option to close down all of our schools.

4:36:21 The state doesn’t allow us to just close down our schools.

4:36:25 So if we can just, if we can get two weeks of wearing masks

4:36:30 and break that cycle so that we don’t see the trend,

4:36:32 I’m not asking for your participation.

4:36:35 If we can see just a break in that trend

4:36:39 and allow our schools to see the same downturn

4:36:41 that we’re seeing in the rest of our community,

4:36:43 it would make a huge difference

4:36:45 because our numbers in our schools are just,

4:36:48 they’re just going berserk.

4:36:50 And I don’t know how we, I don’t know how else we stop it.

4:36:54 You know, when I think I shared with you all

4:36:57 the number of asymptomatic positives

4:36:58 that we were identifying

4:36:59 when we did the testing clinic at Madison.

4:37:04 It’s just, and for me, one of the biggest things is

4:37:07 how do we have 31% of the cases in our entire county

4:37:11 coming out of our schools?

4:37:13 That is just absurd to me.

4:37:15 While we’re seeing all of the other indicators go down,

4:37:18 our school numbers are going through.

4:37:20 And at some point, I do believe

4:37:22 that we are going to see a downturn.

4:37:23 I think we will, we will peak.

4:37:26 Mr. Susan, one of the things that you mentioned,

4:37:28 and I’m sorry, I keep referring to you directly,

4:37:30 I’m not calling you out, I just.

4:37:32 So one of the things that you said

4:37:35 was that we had our quarantines went down

4:37:38 from the 27th to the 30th.

4:37:42 This one, the one from Tammy.

4:37:43 - And I’m not questioning the validity of the numbers.

4:37:46 It’s there.

4:37:46 - I’m not, you’re on point with it.

4:37:49 But I, you got it?

4:37:51 So I just wanna share an anecdotal story with you.

4:37:55 I was on the phone with one of my principals this weekend.

4:37:59 And she was sharing that they’re seeing a decline

4:38:02 in their quarantine numbers.

4:38:07 When they, they had one student that tested positive

4:38:12 and they went to do the contact tracing.

4:38:15 Out of seven classes, one student was quarantined

4:38:20 from that positive case because all of the other students

4:38:25 that had been within six feet of that student

4:38:27 had already tested positive.

4:38:30 Like that’s, that is the reality of what we’re dealing with.

4:38:34 And you know, at some point, something’s gotta give.

4:38:40 Either we’re going to close schools,

4:38:42 we can’t have e-learning, right?

4:38:44 That’s off the table.

4:38:45 The state won’t allow us.

4:38:46 I talked to Jacob Lee about that.

4:38:48 It’s not coming back no matter what.

4:38:49 We’re not getting e-learning.

4:38:51 So what are the options in front of us?

4:38:54 And I don’t like where we are any more than anyone else.

4:38:57 And if we move forward, you know, as I said,

4:39:01 I assure you, I am not looking at anything long term.

4:39:04 But I feel like we are at a point

4:39:06 where we have got to take some action.

4:39:09 And if it allows us to keep kids in school,

4:39:12 that’s where I’m gonna fall.

4:39:14 So with all of that, I’m sorry it took so long.

4:39:18 If I will, oh, one last comment.

4:39:22 And then I promise I’m passing it on.

4:39:24 And that is keep in mind that the policy put before us

4:39:27 is completely up for discussion.

4:39:30 So Ms. Campbell mentioned that there are several things

4:39:31 that she would like to look at.

4:39:33 Mr. Susan, you mentioned some concerns

4:39:35 with the layout of the policy.

4:39:37 This was just a jumping off point for discussion.

4:39:40 And so we can we can certainly dig into that

4:39:43 if you’d like as well.

4:39:45 And so at that point, I will yield my comments.

4:39:48 And you wanna just go in the same order that we started in?

4:39:54 Ms. McDougall, you wanna follow up?

4:39:57 Let me get you turned on.

4:39:58 Okay.

4:40:03 - I know that Ms. Campbell would just like to live in it

4:40:06 as in adults only, I’m not agreeing.

4:40:10 I just feel that that’s not gonna happen

4:40:12 at this point in time.

4:40:13 I think in the future, it could be.

4:40:15 But right now where our numbers are, I’m very concerned.

4:40:17 So I don’t think it’s a bad idea.

4:40:19 I think it’s an idea that I would certainly consider

4:40:22 in the future, but that’s kind of where I am on that.

4:40:27 - Anything else that you wanted to follow up on?

4:40:29 - Not right now.

4:40:31 - Ms. Dinkins.

4:40:33 - Yeah, Ms. Balfour, I appreciate you clarifying something

4:40:37 that was really important that is said to me as well.

4:40:39 Those amount of students that are in those classrooms

4:40:41 right now are already restricted and lower

4:40:43 because of students being positive in quarantine,

4:40:45 which is also affecting the numbers.

4:40:46 Thank you for that.

4:40:48 The one other thing that I just can’t let slide by

4:40:51 that keeps being said, is really frustrating to me

4:40:54 is how difficult it would be for us to have

4:41:00 this mask mandate and how difficult it would be

4:41:03 to keep it in place and to make sure our students are wearing

4:41:09 and our staff are wearing it.

4:41:11 I said it before, I taught when that mask mandate

4:41:15 was in place, my husband still is teaching

4:41:17 when that mask mandate is in place.

4:41:18 My friends, my colleagues, all of us,

4:41:23 we wore a mask, it was effective.

4:41:25 No one said that last year, we had it for an entire year.

4:41:27 No one made that argument on this board

4:41:29 that it was too difficult for us to make sure

4:41:32 that that policy was in place.

4:41:34 And so I just wanna make that really, really clear

4:41:38 because the anecdotal comments of it

4:41:40 are very frustrating to an educator

4:41:43 who saw it work effectively on a daily basis.

4:41:46 And not only did I see it work effectively,

4:41:47 I had a unique position in this county

4:41:49 where I was servicing a Title I school,

4:41:51 an elementary school, but I also serviced daycares

4:41:55 with three and four-year-olds where some of them

4:41:57 were mandated to wear a mask.

4:41:59 And I even saw three-year-olds effectively wearing it.

4:42:01 And we didn’t even have that in our system.

4:42:03 And so it’s frustrating to hear that comment

4:42:05 time and time again because it’s just an excuse

4:42:08 and it’s not true.

4:42:09 Yes, of course, there’s gonna be kids

4:42:10 who don’t wanna wear it and we have to tell ‘em

4:42:12 to put it on and whatever.

4:42:13 I mean, we have to do that with everything.

4:42:16 But it’s just not true.

4:42:17 And I feel like that needed to be said.

4:42:22 - Thank you, Ms. Jenkins, Ms. Campbell.

4:42:30 - In addition to the things I mentioned before

4:42:32 that I’m gonna try, I would like to get some clarification

4:42:35 on the five-day grace period, what it might look like.

4:42:39 I know Mr. Gibbs kind of drafted that,

4:42:41 but I didn’t know if that’s effective immediately.

4:42:45 And by the way, if it passes, I have my mask and my purse,

4:42:48 I’ll be the first one to put it on

4:42:50 as soon as the vote goes whatever.

4:42:53 And my kids will too because we’re,

4:42:56 I hear you, Ms. Belfer, and I agree.

4:42:57 And this is, again, this is Solomon and the baby.

4:43:02 It’s a very challenging decision.

4:43:04 But I did want to ask what the five-day grace period

4:43:07 might look like in, however, to envision that part of it.

4:43:15 Mr. Gibbs?

4:43:18 - It would just be a grace period for enforcement

4:43:21 while they’re getting, to allow them

4:43:23 to get whatever exemption paperwork

4:43:26 they would need as written.

4:43:27 So they wouldn’t be, you know, you could redirect

4:43:29 if they said, hey, I’m getting my doctor’s note.

4:43:32 Then they wouldn’t have any consequences levied

4:43:35 against them for the five days.

4:43:37 - Okay.

4:43:39 I’m also, let me stop.

4:43:45 Just to clarify, I think I know the answer to this,

4:43:49 but there is in, you know, of course all this

4:43:53 can be redone as we want to.

4:43:57 It says until the transmission drops

4:43:59 to moderate transmission as defined by the CDC

4:44:01 to be less than 50 new cases per 100,000 people

4:44:03 in the previous seven days.

4:44:04 So that’s, just making sure, that’s not a daily average.

4:44:06 That’s a weekly total, right?

4:44:09 And I, just for our reference,

4:44:13 the last time we were there was June the 17th.

4:44:24 Okay.

4:44:28 I don’t necessarily have any, you know,

4:44:32 this is kind of our rebuttal time,

4:44:33 except for to say that with exceptions

4:44:36 that I mentioned at the beginning,

4:44:37 like last year we had pre-K through second were exempt.

4:44:42 This is pretty much all these exceptions

4:44:45 are the same ones that were in the policy

4:44:46 that we had last year, except for we added,

4:44:52 last year we also asked pre-K through second

4:44:55 to be exempted, but all the rest, the IEPs,

4:44:59 and while they’re eating a drink,

4:45:00 these previous activity are almost word for word

4:45:03 as far as I can tell, exactly the same,

4:45:06 except for the younger kids.

4:45:07 And then I think we had something

4:45:12 under the types of face coverings,

4:45:13 under face shields that were only allowed

4:45:15 in certain circumstances, and that is gone.

4:45:18 And then it’s more specific as to it being indoors.

4:45:25 I would also say, it says indoors,

4:45:28 and I’m glad that that’s specific,

4:45:30 but then the very next sentence,

4:45:31 this is in section one, the third line,

4:45:34 it says this includes, but is not limited to,

4:45:36 on any grounds, and I know what that means,

4:45:40 but when you say on the grounds,

4:45:41 it kind of sounds like outdoors.

4:45:43 So I just want it to be very specifically stated indoors,

4:45:46 ‘cause we did have a lot of problems

4:45:47 with people making children wear masks outdoors last year.

4:45:52 - I’ll chime in, that was the cabinet notice as well,

4:45:56 and they said that we might wanna just add,

4:45:59 leave it on the sentence before it,

4:46:01 where it says all property,

4:46:02 and then just add to include the buses

4:46:04 and transportation piece, all district transportation.

4:46:07 - Okay, okay.

4:46:09 - Then I’ll be offering that recommendation for adjustment.

4:46:12 - Okay, so that’s all.

4:46:20 - Mr. Susan.

4:46:22 - Thank you, Chair President Belding.

4:46:24 I would like to try to go through

4:46:25 a couple of these real quick.

4:46:28 A lot of the data that was said by the members of this board

4:46:33 have talked about the impact since the beginning,

4:46:36 the impact overall.

4:46:40 I have provided documentation

4:46:42 that shows that those are going down.

4:46:43 The DOH, that the numbers are going down.

4:46:46 The Department of Health’s numbers are a week old.

4:46:49 And in that case, I will tell you,

4:46:51 I agree that, and in the actual cases of the CDC,

4:46:57 that the student data is still climate.

4:47:01 And what I would argue from that is that the one anomaly

4:47:05 that I keep seeing in all of these is vaccines.

4:47:08 Is that that is one of the largest subsets

4:47:11 that are unvaccinated.

4:47:12 And it seems to be a trend

4:47:14 that runs through unvaccinated regardless.

4:47:17 I mean, 90 something percent of every one of our

4:47:19 hospitalizations and COVID and all that stuff are vaccinated.

4:47:22 So one of the points that I wanted to make was,

4:47:25 one, all of the data that’s referred to in the DOH

4:47:28 is consistent with the CDC models.

4:47:30 It’s just a week behind.

4:47:32 So to say that we look at the DOH

4:47:34 because the numbers in one case are still going up,

4:47:38 I find it disingenuous to look at,

4:47:40 maybe that’s a strong word,

4:47:42 find it, I would rather look at what’s most recent,

4:47:45 which is the CDC reports.

4:47:48 The CDC reports are showing for the first time,

4:47:51 for the first time since this thing started,

4:47:53 the numbers going down.

4:47:55 I totally agree with you on the quarantines.

4:47:59 So there is an argument to be made

4:48:01 that the quarantines are going down

4:48:02 because the kids that are inside those classes,

4:48:04 although anecdotally, I could see that.

4:48:07 The only other problem that we have

4:48:08 is that 40 to 45% of our quarantines are coming from home.

4:48:14 And that’s evident when you look at Ms. Tammy’s response.

4:48:21 And when it’s students from home, 898,

4:48:26 students from contact community, 716.

4:48:30 There’s a lot of numbers inside of here that,

4:48:34 and let’s just say this,

4:48:36 there’s close to 1,000 people every single day

4:48:39 that are quarantined from somebody inside the community.

4:48:41 That’s not gonna change.

4:48:43 They’re going to be quarantined because of that,

4:48:46 which makes up a percentage, whether it’s 40,

4:48:48 whether it’s 20, whether it’s 10%.

4:48:50 Students, they’re gonna be out,

4:48:51 but this doesn’t even affect.

4:48:55 So 31% of us being the impact on the community

4:49:02 is not 100% of 31%.

4:49:05 It is also reduced because kids are getting sick

4:49:08 and being from home that are there.

4:49:11 So it’s not always gonna be us.

4:49:13 So I understand holistically where you’re coming from

4:49:15 on the quarantines.

4:49:16 I can see that, but I would say that there is data

4:49:20 that shows that where kids are getting sick

4:49:22 and getting quarantined from home.

4:49:24 And if anybody wants to look out there,

4:49:26 a lot of the, there are people out there

4:49:27 that are having birthday parties and stuff on the weekends,

4:49:32 and then also calling for mitigation strategies

4:49:34 that are not consistent with the way they behave.

4:49:42 The quarantines, if we’re concerned about those,

4:49:45 the most effective way to fix the quarantines

4:49:49 is to test them immediately when they get quarantined.

4:49:52 So if we are concerned and making an entire argument

4:49:57 and base the policy based upon the quarantines,

4:50:01 the increase of testing which we are putting

4:50:03 into our schools should reduce the quarantines also.

4:50:06 So we have the two sides that if we enact a mask mandate

4:50:10 that we’re going to have less quarantines

4:50:12 because of the policies.

4:50:13 Well, if every one of those kids was available

4:50:16 to get a test as soon as they’re quarantined,

4:50:18 it would also reduce the total amount.

4:50:20 And that I feel, which is what I’ve tried to get to

4:50:24 is getting higher testings and mitigating the distances

4:50:28 between is something that I’ve been trying to advocate for.

4:50:32 The other thing that we didn’t talk about

4:50:34 is that I’m getting indication from some of our principals.

4:50:36 And the reason I was asking about them

4:50:38 was that some of them, and this is legitimate,

4:50:40 were concerned that some of their older teachers

4:50:43 that just are tired of it and don’t want the extra work

4:50:46 are going to walk out.

4:50:47 And it was legitimate concerns that if we mask mandated

4:50:49 that they don’t want to be in the middle of trying

4:50:51 to enforce it with all of the different rules

4:50:55 and that some of them legitimately said

4:50:57 that the ones that were saying that were in key areas.

4:51:00 So we have a fear about our retention and recruitment

4:51:03 that’s going on.

4:51:07 One of the problems that we have is daycares

4:51:12 where our children are going when they get quarantined also

4:51:15 don’t have the mask mandates inside of them.

4:51:18 So we have a situation where as our kids are getting

4:51:20 quarantined, they’re then going to an unmasked area too, which

4:51:24 is another variable where we’re not

4:51:25 going to be able to control the kids once they leave.

4:51:31 DOH is a week behind.

4:51:34 And I have not heard anybody say, I mean,

4:51:38 brought up some good points.

4:51:40 The data is consistent with going down,

4:51:42 which it has never gone down since we

4:51:44 started with a term like this.

4:51:47 It has never had five days of lowering

4:51:50 on the hospitalizations, numbers coming down.

4:51:52 It has not happened yet.

4:51:53 But you’re right, we could see a spike that could come back up.

4:51:57 But what we’re not saying is that this is illegal.

4:52:01 Paul said, this is illegal.

4:52:04 And unfortunately, we don’t have the authority

4:52:07 to pass illegal policies.

4:52:11 And it puts us into a liability because of the fact

4:52:15 that it’s ultimately unenforceable,

4:52:19 because it’s the fact that the numbers are going down,

4:52:22 because it’s an illegal policy, which I’ve stated,

4:52:27 I don’t think I could support this.

4:52:31 Thank you, Mr. Susan.

4:52:35 Can I ask a question?

4:52:37 Yeah, Ms. Jenkins.

4:52:39 Mr. Susan, I’m just–

4:52:41 this is a genuine question.

4:52:42 So when you were talking about the quarantines,

4:52:47 contact case in the community, where are you pulling that

4:52:51 from?

4:52:52 Ms. Aguirre’s documentation.

4:52:54 From Tammy?

4:52:55 And on top of our COVID dashboard

4:52:57 and inside of our community.

4:52:59 OK.

4:53:00 One of the things I forgot to mention

4:53:02 was that as COVID runs through a school, it–

4:53:08 I’m sorry.

4:53:08 No, that’s OK.

4:53:09 It was inappropriate for me to respond in the–

4:53:11 No, it’s fine.

4:53:12 I won’t say anything.

4:53:13 So the reason I’m asking is because I’m confused by that.

4:53:19 Because when I’m looking at it, and maybe I’m

4:53:22 not looking at this right, because it’s kind of redundant

4:53:24 in some of these numbers here.

4:53:26 But I feel like on the dashboard,

4:53:28 it says number of quarantines from contact

4:53:34 to case district-wide, 4,021.

4:53:37 What are you looking at?

4:53:38 This is the last dashboard.

4:53:40 The last dashboard.

4:53:42 Yeah.

4:53:42 And then–

4:53:43 So that would be August 24th through the 26th?

4:53:46 Yes.

4:53:47 So then it says quarantines contact

4:53:49 to case school, 3,383, which would be 84%.

4:53:53 So that means that we have 16% of it coming

4:53:57 from the community, not 40% to 45%.

4:54:01 And then if I look at Tammy’s, which

4:54:04 is where I get a little confused here

4:54:05 because we’re also counting cases within the totals

4:54:09 of that quarantine.

4:54:11 So–

4:54:12 You’re asking me to clarify my statement.

4:54:14 No, I’m just asking–

4:54:15 I didn’t know if it was within here,

4:54:16 and you were talking like holistically,

4:54:18 or if you were speaking from the dashboard.

4:54:20 No, I just– when I was looking at it,

4:54:21 we have a bunch of varying numbers

4:54:23 here from a three-day period to a one-day period.

4:54:27 Consistently though, if you look at Tammy’s–

4:54:30 I’m sorry, flyers, quarantines associated to a close contact

4:54:36 family community.

4:54:38 The number of students is roughly 1,000,

4:54:41 consistent over the last three days average.

4:54:45 It went 1,040, 1,017, and then 716,

4:54:49 which was my argument that we are dropping.

4:54:51 Which I was– is debatable according to you

4:54:54 guys anecdotally because of the people that

4:54:56 are inside the classrooms may not be close.

4:54:59 But the thing is that I would just

4:55:00 want it to say that 1,000 students roughly a day

4:55:05 in our community or in our school districts

4:55:08 are being quarantined specifically because

4:55:10 of a close contact at home.

4:55:12 That’s all.

4:55:13 That’s all I was saying.

4:55:14 And when we start looking at the pie of individuals

4:55:17 that we are truly affecting, I think it becomes smaller.

4:55:20 That was all, that was my point.

4:55:22 If percentages are off, there are varying numbers here.

4:55:25 So I just wanted that could help clarify.

4:55:30 You see that, Ms. Jenkins?

4:55:32 Yeah, no, I– so the only reason I brought that up

4:55:34 was because I didn’t know if you were pulling

4:55:36 some other kind of a data point.

4:55:38 And I hear what you’re saying, that it’s

4:55:40 staying close to 1,000 for contacts

4:55:41 to family and community.

4:55:44 But consistently throughout every single one

4:55:46 of these data points that we were given from Tammy,

4:55:48 we’re looking at over 80% of them coming from the school

4:55:52 and above.

4:55:53 And I think that’s really important to clarify,

4:55:54 because that’s part of what Ms. Belfer was saying as well,

4:55:58 that the majority of our contacts

4:56:00 are coming from within our–

4:56:08 Yeah, Ms. MacSougal.

4:56:10 Mr. Gibbs, I have a question.

4:56:13 I also listen to the judges to our–

4:56:18 I don’t know what the word is–

4:56:20 verdict, for lack of a better.

4:56:23 And what I thought I heard was that the school does

4:56:28 have the ability, as in the Florida Constitution

4:56:32 and in our own guidelines, to provide a safe learning

4:56:39 environment.

4:56:41 Did I hear that right?

4:56:43 And that we would not be punished at that point

4:56:50 for following our own Florida law?

4:56:53 His order would prevent DOE from enforcing any violation

4:56:58 of the DOH order.

4:57:00 So that’s why you won’t be punished.

4:57:02 If it gets stayed, it would allow the DOE

4:57:05 to continue to try and punish for violations of the DOH

4:57:10 order.

4:57:10 The board could just, at that point,

4:57:12 if you got a letter saying we’re going to enforce the DOH order,

4:57:15 you could elect to take litigation action,

4:57:17 like some of the other districts are doing, and defend.

4:57:21 His order said that we had due process rights

4:57:24 under the parent bill of rights, that we were not

4:57:27 being afforded, because we have the opportunity

4:57:30 to show reasonableness and limitation in scope

4:57:33 and duration.

4:57:35 So those are all options that the board

4:57:37 would have to weigh, as whether or not it wants to risk

4:57:41 those actions should a stay come down.

4:57:47 Any additional questions, points of clarification?

4:57:56 OK, so I currently have a motion on the floor.

4:58:12 But Paul, I would have to do an amendment

4:58:14 to address the section one issue, right?

4:58:18 Yes, it would be to amend the policy as presented

4:58:22 to remove the, looks like, second sentence that

4:58:27 starts with this include.

4:58:30 And then add, and including district transportation

4:58:36 to the end of the first sentence.

4:58:39 Ms. Escobar, did you catch that motion

4:58:42 that Mr. Gibbs so eloquently put together for me?

4:58:50 OK, so would anyone like to make a motion

4:58:53 to approve as presented with that amendment,

4:58:55 or is there a motion with a varying

4:58:58 amendment to be presented?

4:58:59 Move to approve, second.

4:59:02 All right, so I have a motion and a second on the amendment

4:59:05 to the policy incorporating the transportation.

4:59:07 So is there any additional discussion from that point?

4:59:11 Can you just read it as amended?

4:59:16 Section one would go subject to the exception set forth

4:59:20 below each student pre-K through 12 employee, visitor, vendor,

4:59:24 or other person is required to wear a face covering

4:59:27 at all times while indoors on school district property,

4:59:31 including district transportation.

4:59:35 And then we would remove the next sentence.

4:59:50 Are you good on that, Ms. Campbell?

4:59:52 Sorry.

4:59:53 That’s OK, fine.

4:59:54 All right, did you want to–

4:59:56 I know you had put forward several amendments

4:59:58 that you wanted to look at.

4:59:59 Did you want to offer up an amended motion, or–

5:00:07 Would it be easier just to do them one at a time?

5:00:12 Or do you want to get–

5:00:14 can we get board–

5:00:16 Can we get board consensus before we–

5:00:18 on her seven things that she wanted to offer?

5:00:21 She can ask if anyone supports those before we move forward.

5:00:26 So you know before we get like 10 amendments flying around.

5:00:28 Right.

5:00:30 Yeah, I’d really rather not do that.

5:00:32 I don’t want to put forth an amendment if there’s not

5:00:34 interest for it.

5:00:35 I mean, I’m going to–

5:00:36 like I said, in the amendment process,

5:00:38 but I would like to throw them out there for consensus.

5:00:41 Is there any consensus for parental opt-out?

5:00:48 Nope.

5:00:52 Is there any consensus for–

5:00:55 I’ll save the time frame–

5:00:56 for this to be our adults only?

5:01:02 Is there any consensus to make this on school buses only?

5:01:09 Is there any consensus for us to put back

5:01:12 in the pre-K through second grade exemption

5:01:16 like we had last year?

5:01:18 Is there any consensus to put an exemption for pre-K only?

5:01:28 And then I would just ask about time frame.

5:01:36 It says right now up to 90 days with a 30-day review.

5:01:42 And Ms. Campbell, on that one, I mean,

5:01:44 certainly I’ll give others the opportunity to weigh in as well.

5:01:48 But just while we’re on that– and I

5:01:50 am supportive of a shorter time frame.

5:01:52 I think it’s going to be a moot point.

5:01:53 I think we’re going to have to revisit it prior to that anyway.

5:01:55 But I would be supportive of changing

5:01:57 the language in the policy for a shorter time frame.

5:01:59 But I also just wanted to mention,

5:02:01 while you are offering up that amendment,

5:02:03 did you want to offer an amendment on the metric

5:02:05 as well?

5:02:05 Because that was just kind of a random pick the whatever

5:02:10 level from the CDC.

5:02:12 So not that I’m pushing you in any direction.

5:02:16 That would be a together thing.

5:02:17 Right.

5:02:18 Well, I think we could do the time–

5:02:21 you’re suggesting that we should do them together

5:02:25 or that we could do them.

5:02:26 You could if you had concerns on both.

5:02:30 Well, I just wanted–

5:02:31 my main concern first was just to clarify.

5:02:34 Because sometimes that metric is a little unclear.

5:02:38 But it seems to be, the way the CDC is counting it,

5:02:41 is 50 cases per 100,000 over the last week, which really

5:02:45 is the only thing that we can track.

5:02:48 Because the state DOH website only gives us by week,

5:02:53 doesn’t give us by day.

5:02:55 So we’d need to get that number down below 50.

5:03:01 The next level up is substantial,

5:03:04 which is 50 to 99 cases per 100,000.

5:03:12 The last time we were there was July 1.

5:03:18 So I think– so hang on, let me read it again.

5:03:29 So what the metric then is not for the school board

5:03:33 to make the changes.

5:03:34 But it seems to be the metric is for the superintendent

5:03:36 to be able to do that without us coming back together.

5:03:40 Am I reading that correctly?

5:03:41 The school board will review the emergency policy

5:03:43 every 30 days and authorizes the superintendent

5:03:45 to end the face covering requirement if levels

5:03:47 of community transmission drop to moderate transmission

5:03:51 as defined by the CDC to be less than 50 new cases per 100,000

5:03:53 people in the previous seven days.

5:03:55 So am I reading that correctly?

5:03:56 That means that if we get there, Dr. Mullins could go ahead.

5:04:02 And of course, we could call a meeting

5:04:04 and change it or whatever.

5:04:05 And he always is very good to check in with us anyway.

5:04:10 But am I reading that correctly?

5:04:13 OK.

5:04:14 So even if we didn’t get under the 50,

5:04:17 we’re not holding the school board to not lifting it.

5:04:24 I would rather– I mean, I really

5:04:28 like within the next 30 days for us to get under 50 new cases.

5:04:31 But I think I’d just rather it make this up to 30 days

5:04:33 instead of up to 90 days.

5:04:36 Or 14, if there’s some–

5:04:39 I don’t know that there will be much movement on that

5:04:41 because we’re already asking for a five day grace

5:04:43 period in 14 days this week.

5:04:44 So is there any interest among the board for up to 14 days?

5:04:50 Is there any interest in the board for up to 30 days?

5:04:53 All right.

5:04:55 Here you go, Mr. Stoson.

5:04:57 Good.

5:04:59 I think he’s not weighing in.

5:05:00 Well, at 30 we can review and then revisit.

5:05:03 Ultimately, just so I can clarify,

5:05:07 I would have supported a lot of what you did.

5:05:10 But the overall action of moving on this, I feel,

5:05:13 goes against the rule of law.

5:05:15 So I’m not voting on it.

5:05:17 I wanted to clarify that.

5:05:18 I understand what you’re saying, Mr. Stoson.

5:05:20 And I’m not going to declare right now my vote over

5:05:24 the other.

5:05:24 But I’m going to tell you, while I have the opportunity, which

5:05:26 is right now before the vote, I’m

5:05:28 going to help shape this policy as much as I can.

5:05:31 And I would like to shape it, considering

5:05:33 that I am seeing the direction that the majority of the board

5:05:35 is going to.

5:05:35 So I would like to shape it as much influence

5:05:37 as I can as one of five.

5:05:39 So I would like to shape this policy by making it up

5:05:41 to 30 days if there is a majority of the board that

5:05:44 would be willing to change it up to 30 days.

5:05:48 I can’t see you down there.

5:05:49 Are you guys good without–

5:05:50 I don’t mind changing the time frame either way.

5:05:52 I mean, in my opinion, it has to be revisited.

5:05:55 So yeah, it doesn’t matter to me.

5:05:59 Did you have any others who wanted to take

5:06:01 the temperature on this, Campbell?

5:06:04 No.

5:06:05 OK.

5:06:06 So can Ms. Campbell offer up an amended motion

5:06:10 to include the motion that you put forth,

5:06:14 as well as the amendment on the time frame, Mr. Gibbs?

5:06:17 She can make a friendly amendment

5:06:18 to the standing amendment to add a limited time frame there.

5:06:23 OK, I hate to do this.

5:06:25 I’ll do what he said.

5:06:26 OK.

5:06:27 I would like to add a friendly amendment to the standing

5:06:30 amendment that we change the section 5 to say,

5:06:33 this emergency policy becomes effective immediately

5:06:36 upon approval and remain in effect for up to 30 days,

5:06:39 and then leave the rest as is, I guess,

5:06:44 except for the school board will review the emergency policy

5:06:46 every 30 days.

5:06:48 Is that relevant?

5:06:51 The board would have to make a decision within the next 30

5:06:54 days, since it’s only up to 30 days.

5:06:56 So if it wanted to extend beyond that 30-day period,

5:06:59 it would have to make a decision before that 30-day period

5:07:02 though.

5:07:03 Gotcha.

5:07:03 Otherwise, if the board decides to not meet–

5:07:06 Yeah, if it wanted to let it expire,

5:07:08 it could not take any action, and it

5:07:09 would expire after 30 days.

5:07:11 Then I’ll leave my friendly amendment,

5:07:12 as originally stated, and to leave it

5:07:14 and remain in effect for up to 30 days,

5:07:17 and just to change that number in section 5.

5:07:20 All right, so I have an amendment on the floor

5:07:23 from Ms. Campbell.

5:07:24 Do I have a second on her amendment?

5:07:27 Ms. Jenkins, I hear you at one, but I need a second before–

5:07:30 Yeah, no, no, it’s OK.

5:07:31 –to open for discussion before I

5:07:32 can address your question.

5:07:36 I’ll second her motion.

5:07:40 All right, so I have a motion for Ms. Campbell

5:07:42 and a second for Mr. Susan.

5:07:43 That opens up for discussion.

5:07:45 Ms. Jenkins.

5:07:46 Yeah, so after that was just stated, I just–

5:07:50 I know I supported that, but I do have a question.

5:07:52 Because if that’s the case, we’re

5:07:55 putting ourselves on a tighter timeline for that review.

5:07:59 So to me, it sounds like maybe we

5:08:01 should be extending it to 45 so that there’s

5:08:03 like a window of time for that meeting.

5:08:05 Because otherwise, it’s going to be–

5:08:06 that’s going to be something where

5:08:08 you’re seesawing on, off, on, off

5:08:09 if we don’t have a meeting in.

5:08:12 I would– oh, sorry.

5:08:14 I’m still afraid of it.

5:08:16 Yes.

5:08:16 It can be added to a regular board meeting in September.

5:08:20 It’s August 30th, so you have two meetings in September.

5:08:23 You could add it for a review item.

5:08:25 We actually had a scheduled board meeting for the 21st.

5:08:28 We could schedule, which would be before the 30 days is up.

5:08:33 And of course, we could always schedule an emergency meeting.

5:08:38 OK, so then if–

5:08:39 so I’m sorry.

5:08:40 So I thought it was going to have

5:08:40 to be through an emergency meeting

5:08:42 since it’s an emergency policy.

5:08:44 So if it doesn’t have to be and it can be in a board meeting,

5:08:46 then I’m cool with it.

5:08:49 OK, so I have a motion on the floor and a second

5:08:53 and have open for discussion.

5:08:54 And does anyone else want to say anything before I–

5:08:57 OK, so Ms. Campbell, I will say this to you in response

5:09:02 to the other amendments that you were looking for.

5:09:05 And I think you understand what I’m saying when I think this is

5:09:08 probably going to be a moot point, right?

5:09:10 And we’re going to have to revisit

5:09:11 what we do going forward.

5:09:13 In the event that there is something beyond the current

5:09:19 when decisions are made, I am certainly

5:09:21 open to looking at some of those amendments because I think

5:09:24 that we still need to look at what can and cannot be done

5:09:27 going forward, right?

5:09:28 So when I did not support you on the amendments for this one,

5:09:34 it’s because I think this is going to be a short-term thing.

5:09:36 And we’re going to have to revisit those at a later time.

5:09:39 So just know that you have my support in those areas

5:09:43 at that point in time, OK?

5:09:45 All right, any additional discussion?

5:09:48 Mr. Gibbs, are you comfortable with where

5:09:50 we stand on motions on the floor and amendments

5:09:54 and all of those things?

5:09:55 Yeah.

5:09:56 All right, if there is no additional discussion,

5:09:58 then I will go ahead and call the vote.

5:10:00 No, the vote is for the amendment.

5:10:02 Yeah.

5:10:17 Voice vote.

5:10:18 Voice vote on this one?

5:10:19 OK.

5:10:21 All right, hold on.

5:10:22 Let me turn all of your mics on because then I

5:10:24 got to be very happy when we don’t have this anymore.

5:10:29 All right, all those in favor of the motion on the floor,

5:10:33 please signify by saying aye.

5:10:35 Aye.

5:10:36 Any opposed?

5:10:38 The motion passes four to one.

5:10:41 Now vote on the policy as amended.

5:10:46 And you need a voice vote on that as well, Sam.

5:10:49 All right, so at this point, I will call the question

5:10:54 on the policy as amended.

5:10:55 All in favor, please signify by saying aye.

5:10:58 Aye.

5:10:59 All opposed?

5:11:00 Nay.

5:11:01 The motion passes three to.

5:11:05 All right, does anybody have anything else

5:11:07 before we wrap up the meeting today?

5:11:09 Yes.

5:11:10 Ms. Campbell.

5:11:11 Sorry.

5:11:12 No, you’re fine.

5:11:13 I wasn’t kidding.

5:11:14 Hold on one second.

5:11:15 Let me get mics adjusted.

5:11:17 You’re good.

5:11:18 Go ahead.

5:11:18 So I would– since we are now, at least for the next 30 days,

5:11:22 going to have a mass mandate in place,

5:11:25 I would like to request the staff–

5:11:28 Please, please.

5:11:31 I would like the staff to request that the staff adjust.

5:11:35 Mr. Jefferson, please leave the boardroom quietly.

5:11:37 Oh, my gosh.

5:11:38 We will not bow down.

5:11:43 That’s not the way it works.

5:11:47 So I would like to request the staff

5:11:51 to update our quarantine procedures to people

5:11:57 within three feet.

5:11:59 As the CDC has said, if the person who was test positive

5:12:02 was wearing a mask and the person who was exposed

5:12:07 was wearing a mask, that it shrinks that circumference.

5:12:10 I think Ms. McDougal mentioned that also.

5:12:13 And we– that’s not something we vote on because that was–

5:12:17 what would that look like?

5:12:18 And Dr. Mullen’s–

5:12:20 And Ms. Campbell, if I could, only

5:12:22 because we had this conversation this morning.

5:12:24 And I see Ms. Morris coming forward as well.

5:12:26 But that’s not anything I don’t believe that the board has

5:12:30 to take action on.

5:12:31 I think that’s already part of the plan going forward,

5:12:33 is an adjustment and not three foot quarantine.

5:12:35 I did just look that up this morning.

5:12:37 And I think this maybe we were talking

5:12:38 about before when on the definition–

5:12:40 it was in the definition of close contact.

5:12:43 The CDC website actually says as a three to six feet.

5:12:47 But it used to have when there’s universal masking.

5:12:49 And they took that off.

5:12:50 So is that what you’re–

5:12:51 Well, it was when there was universal masking,

5:12:54 when there was increased ventilation,

5:12:56 and when all students were wearing masks appropriately.

5:13:00 And apparently, I was looking into it this weekend,

5:13:03 didn’t realize it.

5:13:04 But they apparently removed those other limitations

5:13:07 on that to make it that anyone within three to six feet.

5:13:10 So you’re saying we could have made that change anyway?

5:13:13 Well, according to the CDC, we could have–

5:13:16 Because of the universal masking.

5:13:18 OK, universal masking.

5:13:20 Now, here comes the quandary.

5:13:24 Because now, if we do that, we’re

5:13:26 actually not lining up Mr. Gibbs with the DOH emergency order.

5:13:31 Because I did pull that up just to make things more complicated.

5:13:35 Sorry.

5:13:37 The DOH order in Section 1E says for purposes of this rule,

5:13:42 direct contact means cumulative exposure for at least 15

5:13:45 minutes within six feet.

5:13:49 So–

5:13:52 Yeah, you would be selecting the CDC over DOH.

5:13:56 Which this actually mandate is doing.

5:14:00 So I mean, I’m in favor of reducing our quarantines.

5:14:03 I just wondered where we’re going with that.

5:14:10 Not– it’s not–

5:14:12 This rule doesn’t specifically talk about quarantining

5:14:17 based on contact tracing or based on contacts.

5:14:19 They just define what you’re talking about

5:14:22 as a direct contact means cumulative exposure

5:14:24 of at least 15 minutes within six feet.

5:14:29 The exception goes a little bit farther

5:14:31 and talks about the quarantining of that.

5:14:33 So I bow down to Mr. Gibbs’ legal authority on it.

5:14:41 I don’t see it being a complex, because the DOH rule doesn’t

5:14:45 address what we do with–

5:14:47 it doesn’t even address the contact tracing

5:14:49 or the quarantining.

5:14:50 Just the definition.

5:14:51 OK.

5:14:53 Well, I’m fine with that.

5:14:54 And I would– if everybody’s in agreement, we’re all–

5:14:57 it sounds like we were already doing anyway.

5:14:59 But we support that.

5:15:00 I mean, I support that.

5:15:03 All right.

5:15:05 Anybody have anything else?

5:15:07 Dr. Mullins, do you have anything?

5:15:09 All right.

5:15:10 There being no further business, this meeting is returned.

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