Mask conflict escalates at Greenville schools after student walkout
from the Times Union: Disruption, defiance prompt district to go remote for next 3 days.
Rachel Silberstein Feb. 15, 2022
GREENVILLE — The Greenville Central School District is grappling with a third day of unrest from parents and students over what they see as excessive mask enforcement and unequal treatment of students based on vaccination status.
Tensions boiled over at a school board meeting in Greenville Monday night following a student walkout over the mask mandate, which the students said drew scorn from their peers and teachers. About 30 students joined in the walkout, participants said.
And on Tuesday evening, school officials announced that grades 6-12 would shift to remote learning for the rest of the week, citing students' defiance of mask rules and disruptions to the school day.
A short business meeting Monday became a three-hour conversation about masking and alleged mistreatment of students by administrators amid an increasingly polarized climate at the tiny Greene County district of about 1,125 students.
School officials initially refused to start the meeting because several people were unmasked, but eventually engaged with community members about the scope of their power and expressed that the mask requirements are state-mandated.
At least one parent, Pete Laquari, stood over the board members and berated them.
"You should be ashamed of yourselves!" Laquari said. "To sit here and say 'I'm not going to start a meeting because you don't have a mask' — it doesn't work! It's paper and cloth!"
Later, he told the board, "This community will not stand behind you if you don't support them and stand behind them!"
Others attendees became emotional and cried about incidents they said constituted abuse of unmasked and unvaccinated children.
High school sophomore Peyton Calvo said she felt singled out by the high school's mask enforcement and resented comments from teachers and administrators about her vaccination status.
"People haven't seen my face since middle school. There are no school dances ... nothing to look forward to honestly... every day I feel bullied in this school," she said.
Teachers allegedly suggested that she staple or duct tape the face-covering to her nose. Another teacher suggested she was endangering the teacher's baby, Calvo said.
She was among the group of students who walked out of class Monday in protest of the COVID-19 measures. Parents who attended the walkout said their children endured insults and rude behavior by their peers. At one point, someone threw a milk carton in their direction, parents said.
Some students were picked up early and went home; others returned to class or stayed outside the entire day. Some students also participated in a statewide "sit-out" on Friday, staying home from school in protest. On Tuesday, a large group of students staged an indoor protest, leading to confrontations between pro- and anti-mask students in the hallway, school officials said.
Lynn Davis Flannery told the Times Union her daughters in the sixth and ninth grades participated in Monday's protest because they felt shamed by teachers for wearing ill-fitting masks. Her daughters were taunted for their stances, she said.
"My daughters' friends — well maybe not anymore — were calling them murderers and telling them they don't care about anybody's life, because they don't want to wear a mask," she said. "It was hard for them to go to school today. Today, the same girls were mocking them and calling them names."
Eleventh grader Hunter Smigel told the board he understood that COVID-19 vaccines can reduce the severity of disease, but the state's inconsistent quarantining requirements after exposure based on vaccination status seemed "illogical" given that the omicron variant can infect vaccinated and unvaccinated people.
"I have been quarantined four times this year ... that's about a month. It's provable that school-from-home does not provide the same quality of education as in-person learning," the 17-year-old said. "For me, being unvaccinated, I have now received a lesser quality of education. I don't necessarily appreciate that. I'm not blaming you, but I'm blaming the powers higher up — I guess the state."
Parents asked the board to support their effort to appeal to Gov. Kathy Hochul, whose administration dropped the mask mandate for businesses, but not schools last week. They also asked school leaders and teachers to show more kindness and lighten up on mask enforcement.
"All you do is hound them, the mask, the mask ... how about you say hello to them instead?" Laquari said. "How about you joke around with them?"
Parents questioned the enforceability of the state's mask mandate, which has recently been challenged in court.
Greenville Superintendent Tammy Sutherland said she sympathizes with parents whose kids have been masked for nearly two years, but her hands are tied.
"I do think there is COVID fatigue and we are required as you know, to enforce the mask mandate. Parents do not believe that; they think I have the ability to stop the mask mandate, which I don't," Sutherland said.
New York school leaders have recently pressed the governor's office to provide clear metrics for when COVID-19 restrictions will ease up in New York schools.
New Jersey and Connecticut have announced plans to end the mask mandates at their schools in early March.
State health officials said there are no numerical goals yet, but the decision will be based on the COVID-19 numbers after winter break.
Hochul has noted that only a third of children 5 to 11 years old have been vaccinated compared to 85 percent of adults.
The absence of a timeline has put school districts in a tough position as the pandemic drags into its third year. Last week, Ballston Spa students walked out of class in protest of the mandate.
"I wish the governor would have given a date so parents could hold onto it. I think school districts are in a very hard place right now, it's dividing communities ... we are a very small community and we need to find a way back to treating each other with respect," Sutherland said.