Why is the Talbot County Board of Education Hiding from Parents?

It’s bad enough that the Talbot County Superintendent made a last minute decision to mandate masks before school started, but now she and the Board are in hiding.

She knew what she was doing. When Superintendent Griffith decided to mandate masks in the schools at the end of August, she had a plan in place. Not an implementation plan for the mandate, but a plan to shelter herself and the Board from hearing parents’ opinion. You see, she made the decision AFTER the last board meeting before school started and three weeks before the next public meeting of the board. Yes, there was some “joint meeting” between the County Council and the Board, but it was a meeting that didn’t allow public comment and seemed to be, based on observations, a chance for the two groups to have a good chuckle over God knows what in view of the public. In others words, it was bullshit.

Clearly, they just didn’t want to hear it. They didn’t want to hear questions about the data that was used for the decision, where that data was collected, how the decision was made, and if money was the main motivation for the decision and not safety.

I can understand them not wanting to answer those questions. The CDC and the local health department have been “caught” cooking the Covid books lately. The CDC has been counting all kinds of deaths as Covid deaths, has been calling people who have had both doses of the “vaccine” as “unvaccinated” if they are within 14 days of having the second dose, and has been calling the VAERS database unrealiable. ( If you don’t know, that data base lists all the negative effects of vaccines, including deaths. It has been cited by the CDC as reliable for years, just not now, not with this vaccine.) After all, it shows that these vaccines have more adverse reports in 8 months than all other vaccines since the data base was created.

More important is the insistence of the CDC and the government to totally ignore studies regarding the ineffectiveness of masks for preventing Covid and the studies about the harm wearing a mask does to our children.

Locally, the Health Department posted charts that showed that the reported cases of Covid were higher among vaccinated patients. When that was pointed out, the head of the department, Ms. McGuire, claimed it was ” a mistake in the colors in the legend and how they were put on the chart.” No big deal. It’s just data that informs public actions regarding medical decisions. Can we even be sure of the accuracy of anything they say?

Apparently, the process for this decision to mandate masks is also something they don’t want to reveal in public. When asked about who was involved in the decision, citizens were told via email that it was by “consensus.” So, the Superindent made the decision, told the Board, and they all just “agreed.” No vote as required, no official minutes of a meeting, and no school board member has to be held accountable for their vote. Slick. And cowardly.

And they sure as heck don’t want to talk about the money they got for this decision. That big old wad of 8 million dollars from the state via the feds is wrapped up in the rubber bands of instituting mask mandates and other Covid “safety measures.” Makes them seem more concerned with cash than kids’ well being, doesn’t it?

You can see why they didn’t want to have a meeting. It’s much easier this way.

But, give the parents credit. After two weeks and multiple examples of abuse of students over this new “safety” measure, they want their say with the board.

No can do.

You see, since Board meetings were opened to the public in person, they have limited the public attendance to TEN people. And, one of those people is a teacher’s union rep. So, nine. They use Covid as the excuse, social distancing, ya know. If you want to speak, you are counted as one of those ten, so this also limits the number of speakers who can address the board in person. If they have more than ten signed up, anyone else has to “put their comments in writing to the Board.”

I don’t know about you, but if I take the time to write comments to address to the board, I want to read those myself. I want to look you in the eyes and tell you my opinion. I want you to hear my passion, my conviction. I want YOU to have to look ME in the eyes while I do.

It wouldn’t take much to allow more public input. In the past, meetings have been held in larger facilities, the local high school cafeteria, the county auditorium. The Board could easily change the venue.

You would think that once you had more than ten speakers, someone very smart at the Board Office might say, “Hey, we need a bigger room.” Surely, the Superintendent, who can make medical safety decisions about everyone’s children, is smart enough to do that, right?

Apparently not. Either that or something worse.

They just don’t want to deal with it.

I don’t blame them. Who wants to sit and listen to people talk about how your decisions negatively affected them? It’s not fun. I’ve done it. But, the deal here is that this is what you signed on for. The Superintendent makes a six figure salary to do that. The Board campaigned and got elected to do that. Did they not see the part of the job description that said who they worked for and what they would be expected to do? Listening to citizens at meetings is part of it.

Maybe it’s time to but the big girl panties on, suck it up, and find a venue where all can speak.

And there will be more now than there would have been three weeks ago. Because now we have the consequences of poorly implemented and unjustified mask mandates. Children are being abused and denied education because of them.

And everyone needs to know.

Next subject, the abuses being committed because of mask mandates. Aside from the facts that the masks don’t work, they cause anxiety in many students, and they actually get kids sick, we now have teachers and school administrators acting as medical professions. ( By the way, I am not criticizing most of the teachers and school administrators. They are being asked to do something they aren’t trained to do and shouldn’t have to do.)

Some history. During my thirty years of teaching, I was NEVER allowed to give a child a tylenol, a cough drop, even with parental permission. A school nurse had to do that. I was also told NEVER to give any feedback on a medical or psychological condition a child may have. I couldn’t tell a parent that his/her child was “hyperactive.” “Who do you think you are,” they would say, ” A registered psychologist/doctor?”

But now we have teachers monitoring the mask habits, diagnosing what any sniffles, sneezes or constipation might mean, and suggesting to kids that they get a certain gene therapy ( the vaccine.) Worse than that, in the last three weeks, children have been screamed at to “pull up your mask.” One teacher, obviously frustrated with the issues, asked students, ” Do children have to die for you to get it.” Wow. Time for the teacher to get some therapy! That was a third grade classroom!

Children have been sent home from school because they might have come in contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid. Not just one or two kids, but groups. And they go home for ten days with no instruction. Parents are told work will be sent home and some videos will be available. I guess none of that 8 mil can be spent on providing online instruction with a a real person. Funny how they could do that before, but not now. Makes one wonder what their motives are. Trying to set up the case for daily testing and a vaccine mandate for the kids?

There is no rhyme nor reason for kids to be quarantined after contact. Siblings of positive children are allowed to return to school immediately. Children sitting near that child in the class get quarantined. And if parents question it, not only do school administrators have no answers, they threaten the parent with a visit from social services. Getting the picture?

If you ask the Central Office why this is going on, they will send you to the county Healthy Department and tell you these are their policies. The Health Department will then tell you these are the school system’s policies. Somebody is lying!

There are so many more examples of this type of abuse of our children, but I don’t have all day to share them. I will tell you that school personnel don’t comply with the mask policy themselves, which seems like more inconsistency.

So you see why the Board only wants to maintain a small venue for meetings. No sense in letting more than ten people share their opinions and stories for three minutes each. It’s almost like they are afraid of the parents. Or maybe they are afraid their lies and incompetence will be shared in the harsh light of truth.

I never met anyone who was doing the right thing who was afraid for people to ask about it. It’s always the ones who know they are doing wrong.

Seems to be a theme nowadays. Get ready for them to test and vaccinate our kids in school without parental permission.

EXTRA INFORMATION!!!!!!

Many citizens have asked for the Board to meet in a larger room. This was their response:

Good Morning, 
We are proceeding as planned with our Board of Education meeting held at the Talbot County Education Center.  All Board Meetings are 

streamed live and recorded, and can be found on the Talbot County Public Schools website @ www.tcps.k12.md.us

We are currently at capacity for in person attendance and public comment for the September meeting.  However, written public comments can be emailed in advance to publiccomments@talbotschools.org, and will be posted for the public and Board to review.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.