I wrote this and sent it to the Volusia County School Board.
May 7, 2021
Dear Volusia County School Board members,
I attended part of the April 27th meeting and want to thank you for your patience in listening to the public. However, please be aware that many of the anti-mask “Moms for Liberty” speakers are organized and funded by dark money:
These speakers are reciting similar talking points which are based on bad logic, appeals to emotion rather than reason, and outright misinformation. It is wrong of these speakers to try to bully you into a decision which may cause needless deaths and lifelong ailments.
The science is clear and readily available regarding the efficacy of masks and dangers of COVID-19. One of the big issues is that although teachers such as me are vaccinated, children under 16 cannot yet be vaccinated and we know they frequently spread COVID-19 to each other and to older relatives at home who may either be vaccine hesitant or contraindicated from receiving the vaccine (e.g., due to severe allergies).
As a Volusia high school teacher, I have had numerous students contract COVID-19, some with lingering symptoms. I put my family’s life at risk each day as I saw many other teachers contract COVID-19, including almost an entire academic department. It isn’t right to ask our unvaccinated kids to put their lives on the line by compelling them to be exposed to other unmasked students. Although some parents have promised to cause legal trouble for you and to pull their kids out of school if the mask mandate is retained, this is the safer and wiser course of action. Furthermore, I believe the contingent of parents who will remove their kids from school if the mask mandate is ended prematurely is, in fact, larger. I know many of these parents personally.
Finally, I will close by debunking the argument that kids are already behaving unsafely during sports and outside of school, so why require masks in the classroom? The answer is that being protected some of the time is better than none of the time. COVID-19 transmission mainly occurs indoors, by air. The less time you spend indoors around other people, and the more time you spend masked, the better. COVID-19 is a proven killer, far more dangerous and deadly than colds or influenza. We should not treat it cavalierly. Right now, we need you to take a stand for the right decision. Although you will be lambasted in the short term, you will save lives and history will remember your bravery.
Sincerely,
Dr. Richard Thripp (he/him)
Chair of the Volusia County Democratic Party