By Kim McDarison
A return to a masking protocol, which was in place last school year, was approved Thursday by the School District of Fort Atkinson Board of Education, making masks a requirement within all the district’s buildings for all school children and district staff.
The decision is a reversal of one made during a special meeting of the board held in August, when it opted to take no action on the issue, leaving in place a decision made at the end of last school year to discontinue the masking requirement at school.
During the August meeting, the board noted that it would likely address the question of masks again, in response, it said, to changes in the number of reported COVID-19 cases would they increase after the beginning of the school year. Fort Atkinson schools opened for the first day of school on Sept. 1.
On Thursday, the decision to return to masks was approved by a vote of 4-1, with board member Amy Reynolds casting the lone ‘no’ vote.
The decision came after board members heard from 35 members of the public who spoke during public comments in favor of both sides of the mask debate. The full time allotted for public comments, according to board policy, is 30 minutes during each meeting. The board voted Thursday to extend the allotted time to nearly an hour and a half to allow all speakers who signed up an opportunity to address the board.
The full three-hour meeting was attended by some 170 members of the public. A sign on the door of Luther Elementary School, where the board meets, noted that the full capacity of the board room is 170.
Additionally, the meeting was attended by at least three area television crews, likely attracted by the news of the death of a Fort Atkinson Middle School student. Families of middle school students were made aware of the student’s death after receiving a letter from Middle School Principal Matt Wolf on Sept. 15. A GoFundMe page set up on the internet by the child’s mother noted that the child, and his family, had been exposed to COVID-19.
The decision to require masks at school is effective until at least Oct. 26, when the school board will meet again and possibly revisit its decision.
Although the school board typically meets on a Thursday, upon learning from Superintendent of Schools Rob Abbott that the board, after Oct. 15, would be receiving information from the state of Wisconsin required to finalize its annual budget, the board approved changing the date of its next meeting to allow time for the receipt of the information.
During Thursday’s discussion, board members noted that among factors they considered in making their decision about masks was a rise in reported cases of COVID-19 within the district, which, Abbott reported as part of a presentation, stood at 27. He indicated that those cases have been reported since the beginning of the school year.
A letter received by the board Thursday from the Jefferson County Health Department and written by Jefferson County Public Health Officer Gail Scott, encouraging all schools within the district to return to masking policies, was also cited.
Prior to the school board meeting, an emergency, closed session meeting was held by the board to discuss, according to its agenda “a student(s) medical condition.” That meeting lasted approximately 30 minutes.
Public comments
Reading from the school board’s policy about public comments, board President Mark Chaney noted that each participant would be given three minutes to speak. Anyone having a legitimate interest in the actions of the board would be eligible to speak, Chaney indicated.
Thirty-five members of the public addressed the board. A 36th, speaker, Ben Knowles, signed up to speak, but did not appear at the podium when his named was called.
Three Fort Atkinson police officers were also present during the meeting. During public comments, one individual, who interrupted the proceedings by voicing her objections to the use of signs by fellow audience members, was, upon instruction from Chaney, removed from the room. The individual left on her own accord.
Of the 35 who spoke, Twenty, or 60%, spoke in favor of students wearing masks at school. Fourteen spoke against. One speaker said he had not come to address mask protocols, speaking instead about issues associated with curriculum.
Speakers, in the order in which they appeared at the podium, follow.
Comments reported are in part, and may not include everything each commenter said. A video of the full meeting is here: https://youtu.be/Z9RsJbtxdP8.
A parent of a kindergartener at Barrie Elementary School, Jennifer Slak, pictured above, said: “This is not how I thought the beginning of her school career would look … This was supposed to be a happy and exciting time, but it’s not.”
Slak expressed disappointment with the district’s previous decision not to enforce masks at school, saying: “Every time I drop my daughter off at school, a pray she doesn’t see the fear in my eyes of having to leave her somewhere where I don’t feel she is safe.
“I feel not enough is being done by our district to keep our children healthy and safe. COVID cases are increasing.” With the recent decision not to enforce masks at school, she said, “my husband and I made the decision this week to pull our daughter out of school due to the number of growing cases at Barrie. We hate doing this to her; she loves school, but the Delta variant is spreading rapidly. We listened to the experts, the health and county professionals earlier this year, and we should be doing the same now. It worked, our kids stayed in school from January into June safely.”
She said she respected that some families wanted to make their own choices, but she said: “This is not just a choice for your child. You’re making the choice for mine as well.”
Referencing the previous speaker’s comments, Jonathon Winski, pictured above, said, “I think many parents share those exact sentiments … I’m sure we can all agree that we all have our own preferences and points of view: some that want the right to mask when they feel it necessary and some that want to mask all the time — the whole rainbow — and I appreciate that and I respect that. But I just want to call to light that we are looking at protecting our most vulnerable. The kids, they can’t speak for themselves. They can’t advocate for themselves. They are counting on their parents, their teachers, police officers, the whole community, to really stick up for them, and guide them, and ensure that they have the best health …I want to respectfully ask that we take that into consideration,” he said, adding: “It’s a piece of cloth.
“No matter what your choices are, whether you’ve been vaccinated or you mask, you still can carry this virus and transmit it.”
He advocated for masks in school at least until children can be vaccinated.
Cheryl Costa, pictured above, said she spoke at the last board meeting.
“My views have not changed. I don’t think you (board members) should be guilted, pressured, into making choices for everybody. We all need to take charge and make our own choices whether to mask our children or not. Your job as a school board is to guide us in education, guide our children with the best education we can give them here in our small community. It is not to tell everybody to wear a mask or not.
“I, for one, do not believe we need to be living in fear. I’m sorry a lot of these people are afraid. I get it. I’m afraid sometimes, too. But masking our healthy children isn’t the right way to go. We need to take care of ourselves, choosing how you want to do that, and if you’d like to mask your child and send them to school, I’m there everyday (Costa is a member of the school district staff), I see lots of children in masks, I see lots of our staff in masks. Great. You do what you feel comfortable with and the rest of us need to make that choice and do what we are comfortable with.”
Sara Anderson, pictured above, described herself as the mother of six children attending three of the district’s schools.
Before a decision to relax mask protocols was made, she said, she was confident that the school district would: “put my children’s and everyone else’s needs in mind when making decisions paramount to their well-being … set aside bias and look at facts and science … (and) put out a policy to seek guidelines.
“I was confident sending my children back to in-person would be the right decision and was hopeful this school year would be a positive environment for them.
“After one week of school, I realized the Fort Atkinson School District did not put my children’s best interest as a priority. I have lost count of the number of emails I have received stating someone in my child’s class has tested positive. Shouldn’t that alone be a red flag? Also, families are not given information as to what grade level has COVID. When you have more than one child in the school, this generalized email is not helpful.”
Anderson asked if the district was working to keep parents informed or looking to “do the bare minimum to satisfy policy.”
“I do not understand how you can say we are 1Fort when you make decisions that are not in compliance with CDC guidelines and choosing not to keep our children safe.” she said.
“I contracted and recovered from COVID. I’m vaccinated and I support vaccinations,” Kevin Kilkenny, pictured above, said.
He described himself as a parent of two children who have since graduated from Fort Atkinson schools, and were, he said, “well-prepared to attend the UW-Stevens Point and UW-Madison, and have done well in their careers and have success at this point.”
Said Kilkenny: “I’m not here to talk about masking or not masking.”
Instead, he said, he hoped to bring awareness to issues of curriculum, saying: “There’s a spectrum in teaching, I believe, and it comes from Math, which is factual, you can have history, which is a description of facts, and then you can have philosophy, which deals with ideas. I’m sure you are all aware of the controversy nationwide regarding critical race theory and the 1619 project, and the various areas of the curricula that may or may not be dealing with that.”
Kilkenny said he hoped his comments would bring awareness to the issue and asked the district to help parents better understand which aspects of such curricula “may or may not be being used in Fort Atkinson.”
Teri Drake, pictured above, said she is an alumna of Fort Atkinson Schools, a district resident, and a parent, whom, she said, “(has) always been a proud supporter of our schools.
“Today, I am here terribly disappointed in all of us. Our community is so divided that apparently we can’t even rally together around any action to help keep each other safe during a public health crisis.”
Addressing the board, she said: “Now, more than ever, we need you to do the job that you were entrusted to do when you were elected to the board. That is to make decisions in the best interest of a high-quality, safe, public education for all students. Most of us agree that we want our kids to be in-person (in a) classroom. While we appreciate the opportunity for all of our opinions to be heard, we urge you to listen more closely to the voices of health and safety experts when making health and safety decisions.”
She continued: “I find it extraordinarily reckless and contradictory for us to return to pre-COVID operations now, during rising pediatric cases of a highly and rapidly transmittable Delta variant.”
Drake said she made what she called “the difficult choice” for her daughter and open-enrolled her into Jefferson schools, where, she said, a mask mandate was in place.
“Now Jefferson’s mask mandate has been lifted and we don’t know where to turn for a safe, in-person public education in our area,” she said.
“As a school board, you have a power to protect our children that we don’t have,” said Dan Neugart, pictured above. “As I see it, your job is to keep my kids safe when they are in your care. I urge you to choose a mask mandate that will keep our kids, faculty and staff safe.
“A significant portion of our school population is not even eligible for the extra protection of the vaccine if they choose to get one. And now I have to send my kids to school everyday, knowing they are minimally protected.”
He cited the purchase of masks by doctors and dentists as proof that they work.
“The problem isn’t that masks don’t work very well; everyone isn’t wearing one. On top of that, the virtual option is gone. So what decision am I left with; what choice do I have as a parent? The best I can do is send them with a mask and hope.
“My kids don’t complain about wearing a mask; it’s just a natural part of what we do when we go out now. They understand this is temporary, it keeps them safe, as well as their friends and their classmates, as well as their teachers, and the faculty and support staff. That attitude is because that’s what we’ve modeled in our home.”
Kurt Horwath, pictured above, began his comments by reciting scripture, saying; “God hath not given us the spirit of fear, out of power and of love, and of a sound mind.”
He continued: “When we started this meeting, we said the Pledge of Allegiance, and I just want to remind everybody here that we are one nation under God. This is the United States of America. We should have the freedom to make these choices for our children, and I respect every person in here that wants to wear a mask, and I hope they respect me for not wearing a mask. I see it on the (school building) wall, I teach my children that when I send them off to school, especially for the first day of school of the year, I tell them to respect everyone; ask questions; learn about people, but to respect everyone. And I want to see that going both ways with everyone here that’s wearing a mask or unmasked. But I just want to remind people that we should have that choice for our own children.”
Rebecca Van Ess, pictured above, offered the following thoughts: “Heavenly father, you’ve been taken out of our government, out of our schools, and society. People don’t believe that you are who you say you are. They believe the lies of the anti-Christ’s Jezebel spirit that has taken over our government. And now we find ourselves in a situation like this.”
Van Ess continued: “Hear what the spirit of the lord is saying today. Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on full armor for God. So that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have the divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments with every pretension that has set itself up against the knowledge of God, who sees it all, and knows it all. When you take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ, what he says is right, and good, and true, and desirable. No one wants to see anyone sick or, heaven forbid, die. And a house divided against itself cannot stand. They want us divided. Let’s not fall for it. This is not about masks or COVID. As I stated in the last meeting, this is an information war. It’s about freedom, and where the spirit of the lord is there is freedom. No people or country can be free without the spirit of God. Perfect love casts out fear.
“I just have to say that everybody has mainstream media’s information. But they don’t have the information that is being censored, because it’s the complete opposite of everything that everybody else is saying that is wearing a mask and is standing in fear.
“I have a completely different perspective on everything that you guys are saying … The driving force behind fear and control is manipulation and witchcraft.
“There are two opposing sides. One side believes in freedom. God is freedom. Following his ways leads to freedom in health and life. The other side believes in tyranny, forced masks and vaccinations. There is a way that seems right onto man, but the end leads to death.”
Paul Brady, pictured above, told those in attendance that he has lived in the area for 30 years, has served as a substitute teacher, on the school board, and today continues to serve as a volunteer firefighter and EMT.
“When the pager goes off, I mentally prepare myself,” he said, noting that he makes such preparations for house fires, car accidents, and when a teenager stops breathing.
In the case of the latter, he said, he asks himself: “What would cause a teenager to not breathe? Car accident? Bicycle? Hit in the head with a baseball? I got to add something else to my mental list now.”
Brady shared two stories. In the first, he told attendees that 35 years ago he was in Munich, Germany, where a bus driver told him a story. According to the bus driver, Brady said, the autobahn had raised the IQ of the country’s inhabitants. According to Brady, when he asked: how? the bus driver said: “because the bad drivers, the dumb people, kill themselves.”
In a second anecdote, Brady talked about a discussion he had with his doctor who told him he had high blood pressure. The doctor prescribed medicine, which Brady took, he said, adding that in time, his blood pressure came down, so he stopped taking his medication. Then, he said, his blood pressure went back up.
He likened the outcome to COVID precautions, saying: “COVID rates go down, you stop wearing a mask. And then we wonder: why the heck did my blood pressure go back up?
“You wear your seat belt. Is that a mandate, a law, or are you a good person? You put your kids in a car seat, because it’s the right thing to do. Why do we fight doing good things? I want to send my kid to school. For my personal choice, I want them to be safe. If my personal choice was for them to not wear a mask, then my personal choice is actually home school.”
In conclusion, he said: “Wear your seatbelt, take our medicine, wear your mask, and don’t drive on the autobahn.”
Jefferson resident and mother of seven, Virginia Kubicek, pictured above, said: “There is such a thing that’s called ‘spirit of fear.’ And I see a lot of people in this room who have the spirit of fear, whether it’s from where they get their news — there’s a lot of news that is out here that is censored.
“The COVID germ is so small that it can get right through the masks that you’re wearing. It would be like trying to stop a mosquito from going through a chain-linked fence,” she said.
Kubicek continued: “Putting a mask on kids is not going to make them safe. They need their little practice — their practice from their immune system to keep themselves with an immune system that God has given us — and it works. If we start covering our face and staying quarantined, we aren’t giving our body that practice that it needs to practice and keep itself healthy from the bad germs.”
While wearing masks, she said, “kids can’t breathe, they get headaches, they get anxiety,” which, she said, is counterintuitive to a productive learning environment.
Additionally, Kubicek told the board she found signs that were being held up by some audience members while others were speaking, offensive.
“It’s about preparedness. I did a couple of deployments in Iraq,” Andy Everson, pictured above, said.
“We have to admit that there’s a threat,” he said, adding that in combat, threats come at varying levels. “But there is a threat to our kids in our community. We have to have a plan to confront that, right?”
Responding to earlier statements, he said: “It’s not fear. You say people are living in fear because they have masks? No, it’s being ready for a situation that’s there and that’s what life’s about.”
He talked about his experiences as an infantry soldier, noting that soldiers often didn’t like the instructions they were given.
“But then stuff happens,” he said, adding that a consequence of circumstances is “losing people you love when you don’t think you should have to,” leaving questions about whether enough was done to prevent a bad outcome.
“It’s crushing,” he said.
“We just need to keep this in the real realm with experts or doctors — and these people are saying: trust God, not the doctors — well you’ve got to send your kids to school and you are not even listening to the highest educated people you have. And what a slap in the face that is,” Everson said.
Turning to the board, he said: “And your job as the board is to take care of these kids. And answer the questions of their mad parents. You’re not supposed to say, well, what do you think? And then do that. That was done when you got elected, right? You talk to the experts, you can form your own opinions, make the best policy and then take the heat for it, right?
“Whatever you guys decide, that’s your choice, but I think we deserve from each of you a justification on your decision, because someone has to be held accountable. This is serious stuff, and at least we can teach our kids to be prepared for what is coming in life, because you can’t always control that.”
Everson advocated for inclusion from all political parties in the discussion, saying: “I want everybody here and state your opinion. That’s what this is about. It’s a mask. We had gear, 150 pounds, walking forever, and people still died and it affects me.”
Michelle Green, pictured above, spoke about a text message, which, she said, she had earlier received referencing the passing of a child within the district.
As a registered nurse, she said, she was taught the value of compassion, which, she said, she believed was lacking in the text message she received.
“This poor family needs the respect to their privacy. They have lost a child. He or she will no longer be on Earth with us. It is their mourning we need to respect, as they are, I’m sure anguished with sorrow.
“Instead of wrapping our arms around this family and having compassion, this child’s passing has become a tool and a war of sides on who is right and who is wrong in wearing and not wearing a mask,” Green said.
“I know there have not been very many pediatric COVIDs at the Fort hospital, so this will hit us to the core,” Green noted, adding: “I know this is devastating because my brother was the pediatric code at Fort hospital 42 years ago. He was only 12 years old when he was hit by a car while he was playing in the leaves. Still today piles of leaves in October haunt me.
“This is difficult and painful for both sides of this topic. Please have grace for this family. Please remember to be compassionate with whichever side you are on. Instead of worrying about all the people in Fort and Jefferson County attending the meeting en masse, why not worry about the big picture of who we have become?” she asked.
Jefferson resident Jan Johnstone, pictured above, praised the board for its efforts to listen to the public.
“I was a little disappointed, I was hoping we’d have a moment of silence for the child that passed — at least a prayer,” she said, adding that when she and other parents in Jefferson heard about the death of a child in Fort Atkinson, they sent prayers to the family “immediately.”
“The loss of a child is a very, very terrible thing. However, in this instance, nobody ever took a mask away from a child that wanted to wear it at Fort Atkinson school district. They have the right to wear a mask, they can wear two masks, they can wear five masks, they can wear 10 masks. Nobody is going to yell at them or take their masks away. If a child does not want to wear a mask, they don’t have to. That’s called freedom; something that the United States of America was built on. Choice, everyone has a choice,” Johnstone said.
She accused those in favor of a mask mandate of “asking your school board to break the law. Have you read the constitution over here? Apparently not.”
Further, she said, she was frustrated when, by her accounting, “forty-five minutes after kids arrived at school, parents were already out there saying: ‘oh, we got to get to the school board and make sure that these kids get masked again.’”
“It might have been better just to say a prayer rather than spread all these rumors and confusing everybody,” Johnstone, said, adding: “Everybody needs to slow down.”
She remembered from her own childhood a classmate who died while riding a bike. Everyone in her class did not stop riding bikes, she said.
Kristen Czech, pictured above, said she is a former social worker, contact tracer and she is the parent of a child attending Barrie Elementary School.
Her son, she said, tested positive for COVID-19 a week after school started.
Before school started, Czech said, her son told her that he would wear a mask if everybody else did or if he was told he had to.
“I gave him the mask, I begged him, I pleaded with him, he would not wear the mask,” she said.
On the night that he found out he had tested positive, Czech said, her son texted family members telling them he worried that he might die.
Sharing a message to her from her son, Czech said, “I just want to leave you with his words: ‘Mama, Mama, am I going to die? Mommy, I’m so scared. Mom, I wish I had worn a mask.’”
“My wife and I moved here about 20 years ago. We chose to come here, mainly, or partially, at least, because of the school district,” Doug Martin, pictured above, said.
The couple has two children, one in high school, and one in middle school, Martin said.
He described himself as being in the military for “quite a few years,” returning from the first Gulf War and going into nursing school to become an LPN.
“I had to wear a mask, a lot of different kinds of masks. I didn’t like it. But I wore it because they work. They serve their purpose. They protect me, they protect others, for different reasons,” he said.
While in the military, he said, “I had to train other people how to wear masks properly; gas masks, these kinds of masks. They function.”
He continued: “To listen to people tell me, ‘oh, they are going to get hurt by wearing a mask.’ I understand they are uncomfortable. I get that. I’ve been in surgery cases that take eight hours, nine hours. I don’t like them. I wore them. When you tell a child that, ‘oh, they’re bad for you,’ they are going to believe that. If you tell the child they protect you, they’ll believe that. They’re children. We’re adults. We should be protecting them.
“Last night, I had to hold my daughter, she’s in middle school, and let her cry, because a boy she just met this year that she thought was kind of funny, isn’t going to be sitting by her anymore because he’s gone. And I had to try and explain to her why that happened.
“I’ve heard people say, ‘God will protect us from this and that.’ God gave us masks,” he said.
Amanda Golson, pictured above, said she is a parent of a student at Barrie Elementary School and a mathematics teacher with a master’s degree in education.
“I see the value in making numbers personal and relatable,” she said.
Offering some numbers, she said: “This illness has now killed one in 498 Americans. If you were to go to Lambeau Field, and as you were entering the stadium, they told you over 150 people are going to die tonight, would you continue to walk through the gates with your children in tow?”
Golson said she was in support of universal masking in Fort Atkinson schools.
“The focus of the decisions made here tonight should not be based on adult squabbles and efforts to prove one another wrong. The mask debate is an adult problem that we continue to project onto our children. Some are using our children as pawns in a culture war. They will not win in the longterm, but they will hurt our students and our educators in the process,” she said.
As a teacher working with elementary students, Golson said, “they do not carry the anti-masking passion of their parents. When masking was required, students happily put their masks on and they go about their day, content to be in the classroom.
“What does negatively impact children is not being able to attend school. As we move forward with masking optional absences which are certain to increase, students who are home sick will miss opportunities as will students forced to quarantine due to close contact.”
According to Golson, “a recent study found even with favorable conditions in the home, students made little or no progress while learning remotely. Learning loss has been most pronounced among our most vulnerable students who come from less advantaged homes. These students need the opportunities masking affords them,” she said.
Jessica Rusch, pictured above, said she was frustrated by those whom she sees advocating for masks at meetings while they attend other public functions without masks.
She described herself as a Fort Atkinson resident for 42 years and a critical healthcare worker for 23 years.
Although traditionally proud to live in the community, she said, she has become “disappointed and embarrassed” about “how adults have acted and turned against each other.
“We are the role models for these children. Can we agree that they have been through enough? The past 18 months have been hard. They hear and they feel what is going on,” Rusch said.
She said she kept her high-school-aged daughter home, using a virtual schooling option last year, because she was getting headaches.
“I believe in-person is better for her. While she is battling anxiety every day, school is finally starting to feel normal for her. Can we agree that the health and safety of students is our priority? If so, I’m growing very impatient with constant talk about fear and nothing about what we can do to be healthier,” Rusch said.
“Our immune systems need germs to be healthy to protect us. Our bodies have been fighting viruses our entire lives. COVID isn’t going anywhere. A strong you is the answer to this virus. So what can we do? As parents we can keep our kids home when they are sick. More and more parents are doing this and I respect you for that. Simple things like teaching them to wash their hands, don’t touch your face. we can put more effort into eating healthy and increasing our physical activity,” she said.
Rusch asked: “Does it matter if our children are physically healthy if they are emotionally depressed?
“As healthcare professionals it is unethical to treat one area of a child’s life. Kids need smiles, love and belonging. We are the sickest people in the world. It’s time to take personal responsibility for our health. Be proactive instead of reactive so our God-given immune system can protect us the way we were designed to. As a pediatric nurse for 15 years taking care of kids in the hospital, it’s scary for them. I learned very quickly to work with you, the parents, on how best to care for your child. I would never stand here and tell you what is best for your child and I expect that same courtesy. All I’m asking is that we stop judging each other and be kinder to one another,” she said.
Dashal Schopen, pictured above, said he wished his daughter didn’t have to wear a mask.
“Nobody is celebrating masks,” he said.
He listened virtually to the board’s last meeting, he said, where he gained the understanding that the death rate for kids who are vulnerable to dying from COVID was one in 1,000.
With 2,800 kids in the district, he said, “I think it’s fairly unrealistic to expect that kids are going to enter the building COVID-free. Somebody carrying COVID is going to get in.”
To mitigate that risk, he said, and until a vaccine is available for children, masks are “the best we got.”
What people do outside of the school buildings, he said, was “not my business.”
Most are vaccinated, he said, adding, “People want to go out, party, go to bars, whatever, people live their lives, but, we can control the environment in this building.
“The Declaration of Independence in this country gives you three unalienable rights. Those are the right to life, right to liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I don’t wear masks out of fear. There’s nothing fearful about it. It’s about respect. It’s about showing your respect for other people, understanding the fact that you don’t know everything, I don’t know everything. If I’m wrong, great. I really hope I am. And I hope there isn’t a death rate, and I hope it’s all make-believe, I hope I’m brainwashed and I hope kids don’t die. But if we’re right, we can prevent it. I don’t know the answer, but we can prevent it.
“If God created man, and man created the tools and knowledge to combat the virus, then God created the tools and knowledge to combat the virus,” Schopen said.
Ashley Weiser, pictured above, said she is a parent and a safety manager.
“My heart is heavy to hear that we had a death in our own community,” Weiser said.
“It saddens me more to know there is guidance available to mitigate the risk of disease spread,” she added.
She noted such practices were used last year to keep the school community safe.
In industry, she said, “if there is a death at a facility, we are required to notify OSHA within eight hours so that they can investigate. They would be looking to ensure that a company had all possible safety measures in place to prevent injury.
“Our school board has chosen not to implement safety measures to provide for our students and teachers a safe environment at school,” she continued, adding that she found that option “unacceptable.”
“Our schools should offer the same rights to our students as are required in the workplace.
“Safety should not be negotiable,” Weiser said.
She said she kept her daughter home from school after learning that some of her classmates had tested positive.
“I do not feel comfortable sending her to school,” she said, adding that she found the situation “very disappointing.”
Mara McGlynn, pictured above, said she was addressing the board because she wanted “access to education.”
“I want my kid to go to his neighborhood school, (and) to have caring and high-quality teachers and to learn in a classroom alongside his peers.”
While in-person learning is good for all kids, McGlynn said, “It happens to be essential for my kid, because my son, who is in kindergarten … also has autism.
“While many kids can access and develop social skills outside of school just acquiring them through normal interactions, my son requires a little bit more support than that.
“He’s been out of school for the last couple of days … due to positive COVID testing in his classroom. And no matter what I think about myself, there is just no way that I can replace the many skills and gifts of his team, of the five, six people that contribute to his learning and growth every day,” McGlynn said.
“I think tonight, as politicized and polarized as this issue has become, each of you have an opportunity to act in alignment with our (1Fort) team. To act on behalf of a community and on behalf of our children rather than on behalf of a political party.
“I would ask you to do that, and protect our kids; allow my kid to have access to education, which is his right, and to grow and develop alongside his peers,” she said.
Vincent Root, pictured above, said he is the parent of a kindergartener.
“Since March of 2019, my son has made tremendous sacrifices, ones I never knew a 4- or 5-year-old would have to make. It was a battle and we may have gotten a few scars along the way, but at the end of the day, we knew it would all be worth it, and this, too, shall pass. My son went to Whitewater for preschool. He wore his mast all day, no problem, at 4 years old. The teachers wore the mask, and other kids, and everything was fine.
“Fast-forward to today, our son is in kindergarten in Rockwell. Every morning we send our son into school with a mask on and every day we pick him up and he comes out without it on. When we ask him why he doesn’t wear it, he says ‘my friends don’t, and the teacher doesn’t,’ most of the school staff doesn’t wear one either, so of course they are not going to remind or enforce a 5-year-old to keep his on when we want him wearing one,” Root said.
“In team sports or in the military,” Root continued, “we learn the ethic of working together to further the group’s goals. Our athletes and military service people learn to put the group’s well-being ahead of their self.
“We don’t see NFL teams offered a choice on whether or not they are to wear their protective gear.”
“All of a sudden,” Root said, “it seems everyone is a scientist, a researcher, everyone is their own expert, a freedom fighter. Your freedom is this: you’re free to smoke until your lungs turn black, but you can’t do it on a bus. And you are free to drink until your liver falls out of your ass, but you can’t do it behind the wheel of a car. We have safety measures in place at school, too. The doors at our schools are locked. So, should we undo that because it’s my right, my choice, I want to get in the school? Speaking of choice, parents don’t choose recess minutes, class schedules, seating arrangements, field trip options, assessments, start or end time, duration of lessons. They also don’t assess their children’s academic levels. They leave that to the professionals with training. Just as we should in matters of public health.”
“I’m actually really proud of our school board. I know that it was not easy to make this decision a month ago and I think that you stood by logic,” Dale Prisk, pictured above, said.
He praised the school board for what he characterized as listening to the parents, which, he said, “is ultimately what we ask you to do when we vote you in for the positions. We want you to represent the parents, and there was a lot of parents that weren’t being heard. And the thing is, with the way we went back to class, it’s worth it. Any teacher, any educator, any parent that picked their kids up the first day of school, if you can really look at me, or anyone sitting nest to you, and say, ‘oh man, my kid was really bummed out; oh, you didn’t notice the difference,’ of course you did. You got to see your kids be kids.”
Addressing parents in support of mask protocols, he said: “Nobody ever took their childhood away. Nobody ever said in kindergarten, you don’t get to play with your friends. Nobody did that. Nobody said sit in front of the computer and learn. So it’s real easy to say what we would have done, could have done, we didn’t do it.”
“The reality is there is zero perfect solution here. We obviously have a split community. But the reality is none of you are magicians. There’s not five magic hats and five magic wands up at that table that’s going to wave a wand and protect our kids,” Prisk said.
“That’s not what you do, that’s not realistic, and it’s not fair, quite honesty for parents at this meeting to cast aspersions that it’s your responsibility. If you want your kid wearing a mask at school, and you can’t keep that mask on your kid at school, that’s (a) parenting issue, that’s not a school board issue,” he said.
A parent of children in Barrie Elementary, Reeba Schultz, pictured above, said she has worked in healthcare for 23 years at the UW Children’s Hospital in Madison.
“I’ve worked with pediatric patients my entire career. I can tell you we have COVID patients. They are sick. They are a lot sicker than they were last year. We do not have beds for them. When I tell the doctors, the floor nurses, the respiratory therapists, and other nursing staff that our school is mask optional, they are shocked.
“I want my kids to be in-person. I want them to be able to get an education that they deserve. But even more importantly, I want them to be healthy. I want all our kids to be healthy, and I want them to be able to stay alive. Masks work,” Schultz said.
Said Carie Keadrick. pictured above: “You want to wear the masks, you’re telling us that masks work, if your masks work then you are safe from someone who’s not wearing a mask. Is that not correct? Or why are we wearing a mask? What about the mucus membranes of your eyes, what about your skin? Do germs not enter in through those parts of your body? Are we going to be encased in some kind of plastic from head to toe? It makes no logical sense.
“There are numerous scientists, epidemiologists, all sorts of physicians, on the other side who have been totally blocked. How many of us have been taken down off of Facebook for posting factual information, actual studies? You guys are sitting in front of the television thinking the media is going to tell you the truth. I’m sorry, it is an agenda. You look around and you see when you masked people hold up your signs, I mean did you all call each other and say, ‘we’re going to have signs that say ‘agree’ or ‘nope’?”
“I mean this is an organized thing from the other side,” Keadrick continued.
“Science is science,” she said. “It’s our job to get ourselves healthy, the kids healthy and active, fresh air, Vitamin D comes from the sun, you know there are many things we can do to get healthy,” she added.
“I just want to bring up the issue of public good,” said Frankie Fuller, pictured above.
“It seems that life changes and our children will have more challenges than whether to wear masks, but this is an opportunity for us to show them a good example of how to use science as a resource. They will need to learn to rely on science, and facts, especially as we all face the rapidly changing climate. If we can’t agree on whether to wear masks, how will we be able to address the other more challenging problems of the future?” Fuller asked.
“The other issue that I worry about are the insurance costs for the healthcare. There is something that we can do about this situation by wearing masks. It’s a lot less expensive then sending all our children to the hospital and having everyone get infected,” she said.
“Like a lot of faces here, I’m a product of this school district. I’ve lived here my whole life, I’ve always had a pretty significant sense of pride in this community, Ryan McGlynn, pictured above, said.
“I’ve seen as an adult the projects that community members have supported here, something as simple as building a public bathroom in Barrie Park, to building a skate park at Ralph Park, and hopefully the much more ambitious project BASE has going will see itself to fruition,” he said.
“There’s a lot of discussion amongst the anti-mask crowd about civil liberties and constitutional rights, I can’t disagree with that because it would be silly, I think there is an opportunity that has been lost here to teach our kids a lesson about selflessness and acting on the part of the greater good, because I’m afraid if we don’t do that, we are going to lose the opportunity for our children to gain the quality of education that they can here,” McGlynn said.
“Last year,” he added, “was somewhat of a lost year with the virtual learning. I worry that if we proceed with the no-mask route, that that’s going to become real again.”
He advocated that the district avoid disruption in the educational process.
“A lot of people that are here tonight are talking about emotion, or from emotion, and this is a very emotional subject. As you can see, we’re split down the middle; people don’t speak to each other anymore over this, but I just want to take a look at some data, said Amy Larson, pictured above.
“I took Oregon, which is a similar size to Fort Atkinson, and Oregon is in Dane County. Dane County is under a mask mandate — their kids even have to wear their masks outdoors,” Larson said, noting that, looking at COVID cases, which, she said, were reported as of Sept. 17, both Fort Atkinson and Oregon had 21 cases. According to Larson, Fort Atkinson was reporting 70% of its population as vaccinated and Oregon was reporting 86%.
Larson further pointed to what she said was the 7-day daily average cases on Sept. 15th in 2020 in Jefferson County, which, she said, was reported at 20.
“Today, we are at 18,” she said, adding: ” So, I guess I struggle a little bit thinking that a mask mandate is the only mitigation strategy we have, because we see a similar-sized community wearing masks and you don’t see a whole lot of difference.”
Larson pointed to air filtration systems as an example of “other mitigation strategies” the district might take.
“I don’t think anyone here is denying that COVID is not real. COVID is making people sick, but we also can’t deny there are times when there are major influenza outbreaks in our school. Right before COVID hit, my kids were severely ill; never seen them that ill, the whole swim team was ill, half the school was ill. We never once thought about shutting down school or masking our kids then,” Larson said.
Jill Draeger, pictured above, said: “My son, who has never been really an interested learner … and last year has been really hard, and I know we’ve all been struggling as parents, this has probably been one of the worst years of parenting. But as a parent, I have had a child who is not in a great position, feeling good about how he’s been in school, and missing school, and everything around all the drama, and the angst about it. And he went to his freshman year … and I was scared to death picking him up every day, thinking he didn’t want to go back, because he did not want to be in school in eighth grade. Everything was just too much.
“But from the bottom of my heart, I can only say thank you because he really, really, really was happy to be back. Whether or not he was in a mask, it wouldn’t matter. I’m just saying, everything felt good. His days at school felt good, his time with his friends felt good, and honestly, I can only say thanks because it’s been a long road, and I know it is for all of us. And I’m not saying, your children who are scared about the other kids not wearing a mask, I see their point of view. I understand it; I’m not a monster. I may have a different opinion than you, but I’m not a monster, I’m a mom, just like all of you, you’re parents. I just really want us to stop this bickering. I want to try to figure out how we can all work together. I feel there are ways we can do better for each other, and I know there are mitigation strategies that are there. Can we just figure it out and stop this?”
Courtney Thom, pictured above, said she holds a bachelor’s of science degree in cellular biology, noting that she has spent her career doing scientific research within several different medical fields.
A parent of two young children within the district, she said, both of her children wear masks.
“We, as a family, are wearing masks. I am strongly encouraging masks throughout our schools as well as other COVID mitigation strategies, so that we can protect all students in this district,” Thom said.
Sharing some personal challenges, she said: “Last year was extremely challenging for our family. My daughter had four surgeries in the last year and almost died twice.
“I am so incredibly grateful for the care that we received at Fort Healthcare, the doctors and nurses, and I trust their judgement, I trust their guidance, I did then, and I do now. As I believe in science as well as the CDC guidelines, all of these mitigations are in place so that we can protect everyone. And right now I feel we are failing our youngest and most vulnerable society members.”
As a parent, Thom said, she was doing her best to promote safety in her household and in the community’s schools.
“My children have no problem wearing masks in school so that they are able to protect themselves because I’ve taught them that it is a kindness that we pass to ourselves as well as others,” she said.
She noted that she was aware that everyone had an opinion.
“Opinions don’t really matter thought when people are sick and dying and are not listening to the best guidance that we have available. The opinions of scientists matter,” she said.
A nurse, Misty Croson, pictured above, said: “We’ve already been given all the necessary information, statistics, and research from top scientists and experts. Our intelligent, educated community physicians have already spoke out, giving their advice. I’ve nothing further to add. I trust the science.
“So here I am, begging our district to do the right thing to save lives, decrease illness, decrease missed time from work, medical bills, and help our healthcare system. To just start, an easy thing, a mask mandate. It’s easy to wear a mask. It isn’t hard, it isn’t expensive. It’s annoying, but it’s easy. And the research proves that it works.
“We did a decent job last year putting safety practices into our schools. So it’s flabbergasting to me, with our rise in numbers, that our choice is to do nothing.
“Mask up!”
Kat Bastien, pictured above, described herself as a single parent of two children, one of which attends the middle school and another who attends Barrie Elementary School.
Bastien said that while a lot of people had come to the meeting with facts, the ones she thought most relevant were recent facts.
“We need to hear what’s going on right now, not what happened over the summer when COVID numbers were down, but right now,” she said.
As a single parent, she said, it was difficult to fulfill all of her children’s needs last year.
“My kids stayed at home with me all of last year and I work from home, so I was blessed. And with that, I had to take care of the supplemental education, I want to thank the teachers for the awesome job that they did, because that is not easy to go virtual.
“I also had to take care of my children’s mental and physical welfare as well. It is no easy task, especially being a single parent, but I did it, because I wanted to make sure my children were safe. When the kids went back to school, they were mandated to wear masks. There was all of this protocol about cleaning and doing what was best to protect the teachers, administrators, and the children. Where is that now? Our numbers are going up. I want to see action now, and I’m sorry, I’m not going to use the recent passing of a child, that’s not what I’m here for, but that signals to me that the wrong decision was made last month,” she said.
Colleen Peterson, pictured above, said her husband is a teacher in the Fort Atkinson High School. The family includes three children, the youngest of which is a high school senior, she said.
“The only way to achieve the district’s goals of providing a quality education and to stay in-person, is that we need to use science-based mitigation strategies including having a mask mandate in place across the district. Masks are not perfect, but they are a tool in the tool belt of mitigation strategies,” Peterson said.
She listed several of what she called “myths” about masks, including: masks do nothing to stop the spread of COVID-19, which, she said, was false. Masks decrease the risk of spreading the disease by decreasing the large respiratory droplets spread by mouth. Aerosol droplets that can get through a mask, she said, do not have a high viral load. High viral loads are in the droplets spread by mouth, Peterson said.
Wearing a cloth mask will make people sick because of carbon dioxide poisoning, that too, according to Peterson, was false. She said the carbon dioxide molecules are very small and can pass through the material of the mask.
Masks will make one sick because of mold or dirt. Peterson called that assertion false. If a mask is dirty, it can be washed, she said.
No one likes wearing masks, Peterson said, but, she added, kids are glad to be back in school.
Relative to freedoms, Peterson said, “your freedom ends where it infringes upon the rights of others. You can drive a car, but you can’t drive it drunk. You can go to a movie, but you can’t yell fire. In a recent court case, a judge said we do not have a constitutional right to infect others, she continued.
Said Peterson: “We are a community of people with different ideas and views, which I can respect, but we must not ignore scientific data or medical professionals. We are in this together, we must work together, for the sake of our children and their health.”
“It’s funny that we started here at this meeting saying the Pledge of Allegiance, where it talks about our liberties, when that’s the very thing that we’re here tonight fighting against because people want to take those away from us,” Christina Patton, pictured above, said.
“COVID is not the biggest threat for our children. Delaying their developmental education and their metal health is,” she said.
According to Patton, in the ancient world, face coverings were used as a mechanism to make people submissive. Face coverings broke the will of people, Patton said, adding that later, face coverings were used as a symbol of women submitting to men.
“Modern psychology explains that without a face, we don’t exist as an independent being,” she said.
She asked: “How do younger children learn socially when they are hidden behind a face cloth? Or learning emotions, facial expressions, communication, speech and the basic foundation of reading when they are hidden behind these coverings, unable to see their teachers enunciate the words?”
“Children thrive on emotional and social interaction. That’s how they learn, that’s how they grow, that’s how they live. But when children are being conditioned to live in fear that the air they breathe is toxic, that anyone around them could kill them, or better yet, that they could get sick and bring that back to their parents and kill their grandparents, what kind of life are we trying to teach our kids?”
Joanna Stradusky, pictured above, said she grew up in Fort Atkinson and has lived in the community for most of her adult life.
She is the mother of two 6-year-old boys, she said, both of whom have been pulled out of Barrie Elementary School after the board opted last month to make masks optional.
“That was a really hard decision for me because of how much I believe in public education and how much I believe in this school district in particular,” Stradusky said, adding: “ I am so lucky in that I have help and I have someone who is able to watch my kids all day and help them with homeschooling. I didn’t have to quit my job. My husband didn’t have to quit his job. My kids are able to be safe.”
Still, Stradusky said, the family continues to wear masks and spends most of its time at home, because, she said: “as we all know, COVID is so transmissible and it’s insidious; you might not know that you have it. You could be passing it on and not even know that you’re sick, because you don’t get sick. We stay home, we wear masks. It’s a choice that I made for everyone else.”
Sharing a personal experience, Stradusky said when one of her sons was 4, he contracted a virus, which soon overcame his body in the form of a rash. Soon the virus hindered his ability to walk, she said, and left him fighting an inflammatory condition.
“My 4-year-old had arthritis because of this,” Stradusky said.
“We wear masks so that doesn’t happen to anyone else’s baby,” she said.
“Children in our elementary schools can not be vaccinated,” Stradusky noted, adding, “We have to do everything we can to protect them.”
A participant at Thursday’s School District of Fort Atkinson Board of Eduction meeting holds up signs in support of requiring masks in schools. Board members voted in favor of returning a mask requirement to school buildings. The decision came during a three-hour meeting which was attended by some 170 members of the public.
Kim McDarison photos.
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I am grateful for how thorough this article is. I can read quotes from person after person who spoke at the meeting. This an amazing article and document. I get a sense of what was being said from both sides, their passion, their concerns, and how it is impacting them. Thank you for posting this. Yes, I know I can view and listen to the video of the meeting, but as I work to document this time in our history I value having so much of the text provided.
Dear Editor: You’ve provided a fantastic recap of the School Board meeting, with remarkably fair and complete coverage of each of the speaker’s presentations. Fortatkinsononline.com is a priceless asset to our community.
Thank you.