Parents read this headline the other day and were jubilant: “Maryland State School Board Approves Mandate that will allow Some Students to go Maskless.” The article was written by Liz Bowie, who used to write for our local paper a while back. I had messages on Facebook and other social media that said, “Wow. This is great. Now it’s up to the local boards”
I couldn’t believe it. Either these parents were so desperate to get their lives back to normal OR they didn’t read the article. Frankly, the decision by the State Board was one of the most callous, cruel and stupid decisions they have ever made. And they made it by a vote of 12-1.
But, I think you should judge for yourself. From the article:
Maryland’s state school board approved an emergency regulation Tuesday that allows students to go without masks if the community spread of COVID-19 in their county is moderate or if vaccination rates are above 80% in the school or the surrounding community.
And, from further down in the article:
… a school system superintendent can lift the mandate for an individual school if it verifies that 80% of staff and students who are age five or older are vaccinated. Second, a local school board can vote at a public meeting to lift the mandate if 80% of the county population is vaccinated. Third, the local superintendent can lift the mandate if the county’s community transmission rate, according to the state health department, is low or moderate for the past 14 days. If the rate returns above moderate transmission, the school system must resume mandatory masking.
I want you to think about what this announcement REALLY means. The State School Board has decided to hold your children HOSTAGE not only to Covid infection rates but to the percentage of people in your school that are vaccinated. It’s just another decision in recent times that put bureacratic and often dishonest county health officers in charge of whether or not your child must live day after day in a state of oxygen deprivation and psychological harm. It’s a moving target depending on the defintion of vaccinated and “moderate” infection rates. It is also a decision that will cause those who choose not to be vaccinated to be scapegoated AGAIN as the root of all misery in the world.
Let’s take our county as an example. Our county health head, a person with three, count them, three Ivy League degrees; a person who cannot even utter the words “natural immunity” or “herd immunity” without bursting into a hot blue flame of heresy, a person who squirmed and giggled when asked about those two concepts in a county council meeting, has an instinct that is common and strong during these times. That instinct is “Preservation of Power.” If you don’t know what that is, I’ll explain it by saying, “Anthony Fauci.”
We all know Dr. Fauci. He’s the one who was against masks until he was for them, who said the vaccines would get things back to normal until they didn’t, and who recently advocated for us to interrogate our relatives and guests about their vaccine status when they come to our homes over the holidays.
And every local health department head in the country wants to be just like him. Ours does it with non-specific answers, creatively misleading statistics, and the “superiority” of her three degrees. Did I tell you they are Ivy League degrees? Oh, and the squirming and giggling.
The moving target of data in our county has been astonishing. Non-specific when it needed to be, cherry picked when they felt like it, full of omissions always and incorrectly represented when it didn’t prove what the health department wanted it to prove.
And, during it all, the Health Department head has avoided accountability for any mandates implemented by other county agencies by saying she had nothing to do with them. The fingers that point at her edicts promptly get directed elsewhere.
It’s hard to trust anything coming out of that agency. Or, quite frankly, any of them. What will moderate be? Who knows.
Meanwhile, the mother of all health departments, the CDC, changes definitions. Covid infection can be explained in a variety of ways. It can be someone who has tested positive on a PCR test that doesn’t accurately differentiate between the regular flu and Covid OR that has a data threshold incorrectly set so that positives can occur if a person has merely heard the word “Covid” in their lifetime.
Not only that but this same agency, along with Saint Fauci of the Perpetually Wrong, has changed the definition of “vaccinated” from having had both doses, having the second dose at least 14 days ago, and now having had both doses AND a booster. One can see a future where NO ONE is ever “vaccinated” as booster after booster appears over the horizon.
In theory, a school might NEVER reach the correct combination of moderate numbers of Covid cases or vaccination percent that will get the kids out of mask jail. Sort of like playing a high cost slot machine where you NEVER get three cherries.
Like I said, our kids will hostages. But, even kidnappers usually set terms and keep them the same. If they want a million dollars for the hostage, they don’t up the amount willy nilly. Covid cultists don’t have that same philosophy.
Parents and children will be on a roller coaster ride of seeing the light at the end of the horrible Covid tunnel to suddenly being plunged back into the darkness when the terms change.
What is probably the worse effect of all of this will be the scapegoating. Imagine members of your family are among the unvaccinated in your school and your school is hovering around 75% of the population being vaccinated. Every day, the administration will announce that if we could just get five percent more people vaccinated, the kids could go to school and breathe again. And you, your family, will be the problem, the horrible “selfish” people who won’t put their health at risk by taking the jab. Imagine if your child is in school and his classmates and teachers know that he and his family are unvaxxed. Can you imagine how he will be bullied, threatened, and ostracized?
It’s bad enough now when all that is at stake is a fifty dollar gift card.
With the changing definition of “vaccinated” you will never escape.
So, this “kind” decision that the State Board made. Not so kind anymore is it?
John Gotti would be impressed. And that’s not a good thing.
Read this quote and decide for yourself:
“It ( the decision) gives the local communities something to shoot for,” said Clarence Crawford, the state school board president. “We wanted to give them incentives to help drive the right behaviors in the community.”
Do you see that last phrase? “Give them incentives to help drive the RIGHT behaviors in the community.” He could have said, ” We trust parents to make the best decisions for their children,” or “We think that parents should consult with their physicians to make health decisions for their child.”
Nope. He wants to give YOU, the parents, INCENTIVES ( i.e. threats) to do what THEY want you to do, right for you and your child or not.
Or. Else.
Like I said. Your child is a hostage.
EPILOGUE: Some additional quotes from this article in the Baltimore Democrat Party Newsletter, I mean, Sun. Emphasis added is mine.
“The new regulation likely could appease some vocal opponents of the mandate who view it as an assault on their rights.” How insulting. You can’t appease me. You can only give me freedom.
Meeting the requirements to lift the mask mandate is likely to be most difficult in conservative counties where vaccination rates tend to be lower and community spread is higher, but also where parents have been most vocal about taking off the masks. Wow. First, the information is incorrect about infection rates in Conservative counties. Second, why does it matter what the political beliefs of the people in the county are? This is HEALTH, not politics, right? Oh, and the little dig at parents speaking their minds. Disgusting Liz Bowie. I thought you were better than that.
And then this from the Teachers’ Unions:
“I think it is a very reasonable set of expectations for off ramps for the mask mandate,” said Cheryl Bost, president of the Maryland State Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union. “I think it is an attainable bar and it has several options. Hopefully, it will incentivize parents to get their children vaccinated.” Again, trying to coerce parents. Nothing about unvaccinated teachers, who are also part of the equation. Hmmm….I wonder what kind of deal Ms. Bost made with the powers that be in the state. Last time I heard, the teachers unions were against mandates. ( See my article about Teachers Unions, it will explain a lot. ) I’m sure Ms. Bost and the NEA Cartel got a nice little paycheck for this.
Link to the Baltimore Sun article, if you can stand to read it:
Well articulated, Jan!
I believe that it is time for the School Board, the County Council and all local officials to put an end to this tyranny. Enough is Enough. We will not sacrifice our children and our freedom!!!