Several parents spoke out Monday against Northern Lehigh School District’s decision to follow the state mandate that masks be required in schools.

Superintendent Matthew J. Link said that since the start of fall sports in August, the district has had 30 students test positive for COVID-19, which is 1.97% of the district’s student enrollment.

Link said the district has had four employees test positive within that same time frame, which equates to 1.55% of its employees.

At the end of each day, the COVID Tracker is updated on the district website.

Mask issues

Chad Christman used a confined space meter to measure toxins in the air.

“If you’re in a compliant space and this goes off, you must vacate the area or you’re in danger of health or death,” Christman said.

Christman then took the meter and set it inside his mask to see what happens. After about 3 seconds, it flashed red because he said his carbon monoxide escalated to dangerous levels.

“This is what we’re subjecting our kids to for eight-plus hours a day,” Christman said. “Now let that sink in; this is a confined space meter used for utility workers in ditches doing any kind of utility work, when this goes off, they must get up, no ifs, ands or buts.

“I understand you guys are in a really tough spot with having to adhere to the state as to what they’re mandating and ordering, but make no mistake about these mandates and orders, they’re not law,” he said. “We’re just getting tired of the whole situation, we’re tired of it all.”

Christman asked the district “to let parents make the decisions for our children, and end the nonsense.”

Katja Bender said, “My concern is that we as a state are opening a potential Pandora’s box.

“We consistently use the terminology ‘keeping our children safe,’ but it just becomes an excuse for creating blanket mandates across the state.”

“COVID-19 is a real illness that has taken the lives of many people. However, our children are the least likely to have severe illness or complications from this virus and they are even less likely to die.

She said parents should make those decision about children’s health.

“Are we really doing everything with all these mandates to make the children safe, or are we doing it because we are afraid of our state government. Because if it’s the latter, that is not the America that I learned about in Pennsylvania public schools as a child, and it is not the America I want my children to grow up in.”

Lauren Herzog also addressed the mask mandates.

“I personally have found many different studies and articles which show masking to be more harmful than good, and I am more than happy to share them with anybody who would be interested.

“I believe forcefully masking our children is harmful in many ways. Masking our children causes mental and emotional trauma well beyond what we know yet, and I am not comfortable using my child as a science experiment.”

Testing

An audience member then asked the board whether a company she said Gov. Tom Wolf hired to come into schools and COVID test children and vaccinate them would be utilized in the district.

“At this time, there are no plans to do on-site testing,” Link said.

Director Gale Husack read statements submitted by two people who submitted their comments to the board in advance of the meeting.

Justin Jachowicz said he would not attend the meeting because “Our school board and superintendent have implemented a discriminatory policy of mask wearing for every attendee of this board meeting.”

Jachowicz said the board allowed Link to become the sole decision-maker in terms of COVID-19 and the health and safety plan.

“As other local school boards and communities have had public debates and influence on how the district approaches unjust state mandates, our superintendent makes last-minute unilateral decisions the day before our children left before Labor Day break.”

He added, “In terms of decision-making throughout the COVID-19 period, Mr. Link and the school board caved to hysteria and fear and have not made rational choices to best protect our children. “

“I ask the school board to actually do their job and provide oversight of Mr. Link and the school district, or resign tonight and allow for other community members to step up when you choose to step out.”

Support from parent

Cory Huff expressed both appreciation, as well as frustration.

“First of all we greatly appreciate that masks are now mandated given the increased volume of reported COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations due to the delta variant,” Huff said. “We are even more appreciative that NLSD has opted to put students’ health and safety ahead of politics and dangerous rhetoric.

“If this decision were to be rescinded, we would be forced to reconsider our options for our children’s education as we have an immune compromised child who will not be able to be vaccinated for the foreseeable future. However, we are concerned at the lack of communication from the school district regarding positive cases.”