Anti-mask crowd interrupts Williamson County Schools board meeting on COVID-19 protocols Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021.
Brinley Hineman, Nashville Tennessean
The Williamson County Schools Board of Education voted Tuesday to require masks for students, staff and visitors at the elementary school level inside buildings and buses.
The decision came after an emotionally charged four-hour meeting with frequent disruptions by the anti-mask mandate crowd and tensions running high among all. A majority of people who observed the meeting were maskless and interjected their personal comments dozens of times throughout the meeting. Only one person was escorted out by Williamson County deputies, but dozens of anti-mask mandate parents followed in support.
WCS Superintendent Jason Golden recommended the policy since elementary age students are not eligible to be vaccinated. Masks will remain optional at middle and high schools, where most students are age 12 or above.
The new mandate takes effect Thursday.
Public comments were capped at 30 minutes at the start of the meeting when concerned parents pleaded with the board to consider recommendations from health care professionals and scientists — and some begged they toss out mask requirements completely.
The meeting drew hundreds hours before it even started. Dozens of anti-mask parents brought homemade signs and billboards decrying masks. Among those against mask mandates was Clay Travis, a sports journalist turned conservative political commentator. He is the father of two Williamson County students.
Comments from anti-mask protesters turned personal for board member Brad Fiscus, whose wife, Dr. Michelle Fiscus, led Tennessee’s vaccine efforts and was fired earlier this summer as the pandemic began to surge once again.
Rising level of concern led to meeting
WCS school board chair Nancy Garrett said the rising level of concern around the pandemic warranted a public meeting. During the meeting, she shared that as of 3 p.m. Tuesday, she had personally received 781 emails from people requesting a mask requirement, and 348 emails from people who didn’t want a mandate. She shared the anecdote after more than 200 people, a majority of whom were against masks, crammed into the complex to watch the meeting.
“(Board members) have gotten a significant number of emails, and we just felt like the opportunity and appetite to have a discussion in front of the public were there,” she said.
Board member Dan Cash argued the best indicator of how many people were in favor of masks was to observe how many chose to wear them in elementary schools.
Golden said 25 elementary school students have tested positive for COVID-19 since school began on Friday. In elementary schools, 27% of students have chosen to wear a mask so far.
The district no longer has the option to switch to remote school when cases surge because of a change in state policy, Golden said, and the priority is keeping elementary students in school since they do not do as well in remote school.
Under the policy approved Tuesday, elementary teachers can remove masks if they are more than 6 feet away from students.
Exemptions granted to students and teachers under last year’s mask mandate will be honored this year. Golden said about 1,500 exemptions were granted last school year on medical or religious grounds.
The district does not question the reasons people give for needing exemptions to the mask mandate, Golden said.
The mandate is scheduled to end Sept. 21 unless the board votes to extend it at their meeting Sept. 20.
Meeting draws crowd
Spring Hill mom Tessa Certa protested ahead of the meeting. She said last year she was fine with her children wearing masks because things were evolving constantly from a health perspective. But now more than a year into the pandemic, she is no longer on board with mask mandates at school.
She said wearing a mask was isolating for her fourth grader and made it difficult for her other son who has speech difficulties. Wearing a mask makes it impossible for him to see his teacher’s face.
“I didn’t have the guts to fight it as much last year,” she said.
Neither Certa nor her children are vaccinated, and they had the virus earlier in the pandemic. If school board members implement a mask mandate, she said she hopes there will be exceptions.
Dr. Sarah Essary, an internal medicine physician, said a mask is a small ask for children until they have the opportunity to be fully vaccinated considering that health care workers have been on the frontlines of the pandemic for 18 months in full protective equipment.
She said basing decisions on vaccination rates isn’t an accurate metric since mostly adults are eligible and not children.
Ongoing debate over masks
The special board meeting came two and a half days into the school year and after neighboring Metro Nashville Public Schools adopted a temporary mask mandate for all students for the fall.
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Unlike last year, Williamson County Schools started its 2021-2022 school year Friday without a mask mandate for students, teachers and staff. The district decided to cancel its original mask mandate as the last school year ended and cases of COVID-19 began to dwindle.
But cases of COVID-19 and its delta variant have since skyrocketed across Tennessee and the county.
Franklin Special School District had also decided to make masks optional at the start of school Friday, and although the topic was discussed at a Monday meeting, no changes were made to health guidelines.
“All I want is my kids to stay in school, and I want them to be safe,” parent Amber Parker said.
Parker said the lack of a mask mandate scared her and if the community learned anything from last school year and federal health organizations’ recommendations, it’s that masks are effective when everyone wears them.
“[The district] handled it so well last year, and I can’t say that this year,” she said.
Inside at the FSSD meeting, parents spoke both in support of and against adopting a mask mandate. FSSD Director of Schools David Snowden said the district would need more local and school data to make a decision to implement a mandate.
“What you don’t usually hear is the CDC also in their comment states that localities should monitor community transmission, vaccination coverage and occurrence of outbreaks to guide decisions on the level of layered prevention strategies,” he said.
Snowden said the district relied on school data to assess health protocols last year. With just a day and a half’s worth of data under their belt this time around, the FSSD COVID-19 team is not yet certain whether a mask mandate is appropriate.
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“If we begin to see a spike in cases and transmission, we can always change course,” he said.
Anika Exum is a reporter covering Williamson County for The Tennessean. Reach her at aexum@tennessean.com or on Twitter @aniexum.
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