By THOMAS P. CALDWELL, InDepthNH.org
BRISTOL — Parents anticipating a continuation of mask mandates in the Newfound Area School District came to the Aug. 9 school board meeting to protest the school reopening plan, but Superintendent Pierre Couture announced that, contrary to the draft plan posted on the district’s website, “it’s pretty much back to normal.”
“The Newfound Area is in really great shape,” Couture said, “hardly any COVID in any of the towns.”
This comes as school districts across the state are grappling with whether or not to require masks in schools and on school buses as Nashua and Concord have done.
Students will be returning to school as the number of COVID-19 cases are surging in New Hampshire and across the country.
The state Department of Health and Human Services released weekend COVID-19 numbers on Monday reporting 481 new cases from Friday through Sunday and 53 hospitalizations.
During a public comment period at the beginning of the meeting in Bristol, parents cited breathing difficulties, ineffectual masking, psychological effects, and parental rights as reasons to avoid mask requirements. They noted that some parents have already left the public school system to avoid district mandates.
Couture said that Newfound’s school nurses, who meet weekly via Zoom with New Hampshire’s state epidemiologist, Dr. Benjamin Chan, decided the district could safely resume in-person classes without masks or the need for remote classes.
As for athletics, Couture said, “The data shows that virtually no COVID is transmitted when anybody is outdoors, so we feel really safe … We’re going to have normal opening procedures.”
He noted that the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services has not yet finalized recommendations concerning quarantines for anyone testing positive for COVID.
“We plan to follow whatever DHHS recommends,” he said.
The superintendent said that, if COVID does show up in the schools, they might have to go back to masks and other safety measures but might limit them to a single school rather than requiring a district-wide response.
That possibility did not satisfy two Bristol residents who had previously spoken against masks.
After the school board approved the superintendent’s recommendation, John Sellers of Bristol accused them of not listening. “You’re not hearing the parents. They don’t want you to put masks on their kids, period. They don’t work,” he said.
Sellers maintained that forcing children to wear masks amounts to child abuse. He said the masks are hot and wearing them for prolonged periods can cause psychological harm.
During the initial public comment period, he also spoke on behalf Heather Hack, an Alexandria woman who advocated for parental rights in mask decisions. Referring to her email, he said Nashua, Exeter, Winnisquam, “and many other public school districts have acknowledged the decision-making authority for parents.”
Sellers added, “I personally know multiple families who plan to choose an alternate to public school, such as Catholic school or private school or homeschooling” because of mask mandates.
“You will lose more students because they will start homeschooling and create these homeschool pods, and the next thing you know, you’ve lost another 50 or 100 kids, and that’s the last thing that we need to happen here because now you don’t get the state money,” he said.
A Bristol resident who identified herself only as “Danielle” complained that the new school opening plan had not been posted on the district website. “You guys should have read the whole reopening plan so that we can hear what’s in it because it’s more than just masking. … I have no idea what’s in there, and you guys voted on it. All I’m asking for is transparency.”
The draft plan had included isolating students or sending them home for positive test results, but Couture said the district’s response would follow DHHS guidelines.
Acknowledging that some students had fallen behind under last year’s restrictions that included remote classes, Couture said federal funds have allowed the district to hire two literacy specialists and a guidance counselor to help students get back on track with their learning.
Nationwide Debate
How to cope with the surge in new COVID cases has become a divisive national topic. The United States currently has 17 percent of the world’s new infections, despite having the best vaccine supply. Dr. Mark Kline, physician-in-chief at Children’s Hospital New Orleans, said in an ABC interview, “We are hospitalizing record numbers of children. Half of the children in our hospital today are under two years of age, and most of the others are between 5 and 10 years of age.”
That runs contrary to earlier reports that children are rarely impacted by the virus.
The states that have been most reluctant to take precautionary measures — Florida and Texas — are seeing the sharpest increases in COVID-19 cases, but even in New Hampshire, with good vaccination rates, 703 people who were fully vaccinated have been infected, and 10 have died, between January 20 and August 4, according to Laura Montenegro of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Still, Gov. Chris Sununu has opposed a statewide mask mandate, noting that each community is unique and such decisions should remain at the local level.
Concord’s assistant superintendent, Donna Palley, said parents have been overwhelmingly supportive of mask-wearing by the students, but “of course, there are always people who are not.”
The district observes the Centers for Disease Control guidelines that require masks on school buses and plans to require masks indoors until the city’s vaccination rate reaches 70 percent or until vaccines are available to elementary school students. It does not require masks for outdoor athletics. While the goal is to maintain three feet of physical distancing, administrators acknowledge that it is not always possible.
RebuildNH is an advocacy group that maintains that masks are unnecessary and ineffectual, and has mounted a campaign against mask mandates for students. Several members of the New Hampshire House have signed on to their position.
