Last night I attended the ICCSD School Board meeting to deliver hard copies of our signatures and ask them to implement a mask mandate.*
There was a powerful moment of silence in the midst of the meeting:
The board is thinking deeply and actively about this issue. They and the district's attorney have looked hard and found no legal path forward: nothing they do is likely to be successful, and all would bring negative consequences to the district and our students, likely for years.
After the attorney's report on this, school board member Charlie Eastham asked "How far do you think the state can go in imperiling the health of the district's students? Do you think there is any limit?"
There was a long silence. Everyone in the room held their breath. Finally the attorney said, "It's pretty difficult to say."
So, what now?
The attorney did give two pieces of information for a path forward: that the civil rights angle may be most effective, and that parents have more standing than districts on this.
1. Contact the US Attorney's Office and the Civil Rights Commission. The Department of Education's civil rights suit is likely the most effective path forward.
(Below info from Science for Safe Schools on Facebook (the folks who organized the statewide sit-in). Ask to join the FB group. Below is from Action Item #3 Under the "Guides" tab):
The Biden Administration is challenging state mask preemptions as a violation of civil rights for students with disabilities.
Now is the time to act! Contact your US Attorney (Johnson County is in the Southern District, the Davenport Office -- more office info on Science for Safe Schools page), the Iowa Attorney General, and the Iowa Civil Rights Commissioners.
1. Share your story or the story of a loved one and friend who feel their civil rights are being violated by not having a safe option for school because of the mask preemption.
2. Ask them to support the federal effort to protect civil rights.
US Attorney IA Southern District
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndia/contact-us
Davenport Office: (563) 449-5432
Attorney General Tom Miller:
https://www.iowaattorneygeneral.gov/contact-us
Phone: 515-281-5164
Iowa Civil Rights Commission
https://icrc.iowa.gov/contact-us
https://icrc.iowa.gov/about-us/current-commissioners
Contact the Commissioners:
Marcelena.Ordaz@iowa.gov
justin.johnston@iowa.gov
Patricia.Lipski@iowa.gov
Dennis.Mandsager@iowa.gov
Holly.White@iowa.gov
Sam.Kooiker@iowa.gov
3. ICCSD's attorney also said that it seems parents may have more legal "standing," (i.e., the right to bring a law suit) than school districts. Please consider donating to support this law suit. (https://www.franparr.com/?fbclid=IwAR1oNocokFNiQyJvhjIgDvINLPGbKpPCV6u_6wZ46hIpl-dOLH53L9dVT10
Keep us posted on what you've done at ICProtectKidsCommunity@gmail.com.
*Along with the petition, I shared results from a COVID infection/hospitalization modeling tool for ICCSD:
Here's what they project with no masks or testing:
Total Students: 13,947
Infected: 7,646
Hospitalized: 15-146
And with masks and widespread testing:
Total Students: 13,947
Infected: 2,180
Hospitalized: 4-42