Organizers have invited members of the Vancouver School District Board of Directors for an open discussion
A group of Vancouver Public Schools families has organized a Town Hall Meeting at which they hope to have an open discussion about the state-wide mask mandates in schools.
The organizers have invited the members of the Vancouver School District Board of Directors to join them at the event. In addition to the mask mandates, those organizing the event plan to discuss the use of QR codes in schools, COVID testing and curriculum currently being used on the campuses of Vancouver Public Schools.
“We started organizing in June with 13 people and our group has grown,’’ said Katie Bauer, one of the group’s members. “In July we had approximately 50 people in attendance for the Board Meeting, in August it was at least 90 and many were put into an overflow room.
“I addressed the board in July asking for a Town Hall so that we could have discussions with the board members as opposed to parents just having 3 minutes to give testimony with no reply,’’ Bauer added. “I, and others in our group, followed up with email requests. There has been no Town Hall scheduled so we decided to schedule our own and invite the board members.’’
Tuesday’s (Oct. 5) event is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at the Felida Community Park (NW 122nd St. & NW 38th Ave.). Attendees are encouraged to bring chairs and dress for the weather.
While this is a great idea and I applaud the creation of such a forum, my guess is that the organizers think the current mask mandates are a bad thing, and from what I’ve seen from other school-board meetings, there is just a whole lot of misinformation on that side.
The key to success for such an event is open mindedness and education. When people premise their views on oft-heard statements like “COVID has a 99.9% survival rate,” and “Masks cause oxygen deprivation,” and “I will decide what’s safe for my child”, there is no path to agreement or understanding, because these are all factually wrong.
Note: the last one seems true, but the issue of masks in schools isn’t just to protect children, but to protect the entire community in which those children live and can spread disease.
A wise starting point would be to get these beliefs–on both sides–out on the table, and thoroughly vet them.
When members of my community defy common sense safety measures and endanger–in fact, kill–other members of the community, some cry about how selfish and evil they are. But I know better; the farther North one goes in Clark County the more conservative and the closer to my family they become. They are simply misinformed, because believe it or not, there are people profiting off of lying and generating hate.
Consider this: no matter what one’s political views are, as long as the media can make reasonable people seem unreasonable, there will be an endless source of hate that can be used for political and financial gain.
Maybe I’ve misunderstood your comment, but what I’m reading seems to be more of the “everyone’s opinion is important unless it doesn’t agree with mine, in which case you need to go away and be quiet.”
Your 2nd and 3rd paragraphs seem to show you support the mainstream media’s kool-aid, and you support open dialogue as long as it is in line with your thinking. Please forgive me if I’ve misunderstood.
You might [misunderstand]. My point is that there are two groups arguing about COVID in various forums. One is largely (but not entirely) supporting their views with current science, while the other is less so.
You and I might disagree on which horse in a herd is prettiest, but that won’t cause any problems. However, if I say they are horses and you say they are cows, we will never agree on what we should do with them (ride, eat, for e.g.).
That’s what I’m saying. The problem lies in what we accept as ‘truth.’
The facts are very clear whether you choose to ignore them is up to you. Children have a greater chance of being struck by lightning then being taken from covid. People love fear porn and will continue to listen to Rachel Maddow and Don Lemon because they feel comforted by the hysteria. Wake up liberals.
Well, this again misses the point. Although, as a deadly virus ravages our country, it’s certainly natural to worry over our kids, if we look at the science they are more likely to die of flu than COVID.
But that’s not the point. There are two things related to kids that we should be worried about:
No community is all children. Each of them returns home from school to a family, who also interact with others in our communities.
The way to beat a virus is not to say “I’m not scared,” but to stop it from transmitting. That’s something we can easily do, if we would all just agree to do it. It doesn’t matter who it kills; it only matters that it DOES kill, and frankly I think that should be enough for us all to just do our part and get past it.