Opposition to past Covid decisions of the school board, was the point of podium speaker Michael Rosiere on November 22 at the school board meeting, held in the middle school library in Clinton.
Asking for and receiving permission to speak for five minutes, rather than three, Rosiere politely and firmly stated his beliefs to the elected members.
“I believe mask wearing should always be optional,” said Rosiere. “This age group (school age children) have the least risk of serious illness (from Covid).”
Rosiere went on to say the 5 percent threshold for mandatory masking should not be enforced.
“The community has no such (threshold) policies,” Rosiere said. “Nor does the state, county or any town (municipality).”
The father of a school-age daughter doesn’t want to see the mandate come back.
“Why would the Board include quarantines toward this threshold. Because all that should concern us is positive individuals not the dozens of close contact healthy quarantined people who historically never went on to develop Covid. A good example of how this translates into real world outcomes…. Just this past Friday the Clinton High School is at 2.71% toward that 5% threshold with only ONE person who is actively Covid positive. That one person comes out to be .15% which is less than two tenths of a percent. The other 2.6% that makes up that number were just quarantines.” Rosiere said. “There is absolutely no argument that our children should be treated differently than the rest of our community.”
Vaccines are now available for almost all children.
“Golden Valley Medical verified that any child 5 years and older can receive the vaccination,” Rosiere said. “Parents have the protection they need to keep their child safe (from Covid).”
Clinton School District Administration and school board officials declined to comment on Rosiere’s address.
Board President Parker Mills said in an e-mail, that it was fine to mention (in the story) that there were no agenda items regarding the Return to Learn Plan, (or Covid policy), and that the current plan (5% threshold) remains in effect.
Online information on school age children affected by Covid deaths, is very stark.
The Journal of Pediatrics quotes 175,000 (U.S.) students have lost their caregiver parent or grandparent since the beginning of the pandemic.
No good figures exist on the number of teacher deaths nationwide. But the board did discuss staffing shortages, (related in part to Covid risks), and increasing enrollment.
“I don’t want to have 35 kids per class next year,” said Superintendent Destry Brown. “We may have to begin teacher recruitment earlier (coming spring) to increase our staffing.”
“Our high school enrollment topped 600 (students), Brown said. “The freshman class (alone) has 200.”
Online Covid death totals are 800,000 nationwide, with just over half of U.S. residents vaccinated.
