The public comment section of the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday August 24 featured parents and students expressing their concerns about wearing masks in schools. The students gave first hand accounts on how the mask issue has affected them. All speakers were calm and civil in expressing their concerns.

The speakers showed up to the Board of Supervisors meeting after the left block majority on the school board led by Dawn Shelley censored public speaking at the Monday August 23 school board meeting. Although public comments was not on the agenda at the Monday school board meeting, there is precedent for adding public comments to the agenda. The August 11 school board meeting is an example of the precedent.

As public servants, Shelley, Daniels, and Braswell should know better and let people speak on this hot topic issue. Instead, Shelley, Braswell, and Daniels neglected their roles as public servants. All three adopted an authoritarian censorship approach in an attempt to control the narrative on this hot button issue. Here are quotes from some of the speakers at public comments at the Board of Supervisors meeting.

Daniel Latham said the following:
“At the school board meeting, you would understand that the public was shutdown from being able to speak, from being able to give our concerns about an issue. ……The school board is not fulfilling their role. They are not fulfilling their oath. They are not listening to their constituents. They are not letting us address our grievances. We get shuffled out the door or we get a gavel banged at us and we get threatened by removal by the police. We are not allowed to speak…..We have no where to go at this point”

Carla, a high school student, stated:
“I am being harassed by teachers everyday……when I wear a mask I get panic attacks and my face breaks out badly and I feel like I am going to pass out…….Please put the children in our county first again, not left on hot busses or called names by teachers.”

Trissa Bullock stated:
“Our children are the ones that are living this hell. They are living in being segregated, being harassed, being pushed so far back in the classroom that they can not hear or see, being called out, kicked out of class, kicked out of school…..”

Marina Puchalski stated:
“Mrs Shelley, Mrs Daniels and Mr Braswell showed their lack of care for our kids, our rights as parents, and our beliefs.”