The Lynchburg City School Board held a special meeting Friday night -- ultimately deciding that come Monday, January 24, they will stick with their current COVID-19 protocol.
“At the end of the day, we are concerned about student achievement. We want to keep our students in school with a healthy staff in front of them,” said Dr. James Coleman, Chair on the board.
At the meeting, Dr. Kerry Gately and Cali Anderson from the Central Virginia Health Dept. discussed the status of COVID-19 in the Lynchburg community.
“Lynchburg is at a 52% vaccination rate. Outbreaks are at an all-time high. Lynchburg is experiencing 400 new cases a day,” Anderson said.
Board members referred to those numbers when supporting their decision during the vote.
Several members of the community expressed concerns regarding the LCS Health Mitigation Plan. Community members spoke out in public, sent emails and left voice messages to share their opinion -- either in favor of the mask mandate or opposing it.
"If you chose to not do that and not care enough about our children to encourage them to do that and provide policies for them to do that, contact your local funeral director and make pre-arrangements," said Carl Hutcherson, former Lynchburg mayor.
With case numbers rising in Lynchburg, some strongly proclaimed that students should stay masked up.
"Executive orders don’t supersede laws, and I don’t want us to be part of a school board that uses children as political probes,” said Jeffrey Wooters, senior at E.C. Glass High School.
Others spoke up for parents having the final say on what their children do.
"No matter how much you claim to be doing for our students, you can never love these students more than their parents,” said Andrew Glover, an attendee.
"Parents across the commonwealth voted overwhelmingly to have a choice what is best for their families,” said a concerned parent.
Some people even felt the mask mandate was aiding in children’s mental health issues.
"By looking to adopt this policy, the board is willing to accept child abuse for the sake of preserving their own power and control,” said another concerned parent.
After a closed session to discuss all the input they received, the board ultimately sided with the CDC, voting 7-2 to keep the current policy requiring masks.
“The ultimate right for the upbringing, education and care of children is vested solely, ultimately with the parents. Full stop. What I saw tonight was that there is more of a priority to succumb to fear than to empower folks,” said Christopher Faraldi, Lynchburg City Council member.
However, the board majority felt this was the best way to keep moving forward.
"I am the parent of a Type 1 diabetic daughter. She did not do well when she was not able to do well in school. Now that she is back in school, she is doing incredibly well in advanced classes. We need to keep kids in schools. That is where they learn best. The best path for all students is to keep them in the classroom,” said Coleman.