'Aggressive And Disruptive' Mask Dispute At Fairfield Meeting

FAIRFIELD, CT — Police were called to the Fairfield school board offices Tuesday night when a committee meeting was interrupted by a tense exchange involving local officials and unmasked residents, who one committee member called “aggressive and disruptive.”

The Board of Education Policy Committee held the special meeting to discuss several items, including the school district’s approach to face mask breaks. The meeting was held at the school district offices in the 500 block of Kings Highway East. Masks were required at the event.

The committee gathered in a small conference room, but members of the public were asked to listen to audio of the meeting in a larger overflow room, according to committee Chair Jennifer Maxon-Kennelly. A group of residents, some of whom were unmasked, were having trouble hearing the meeting and knocked on the conference room door, she said.

Maxon-Kennelly characterized what came next as an “aggressive conversation” about the rules for masking at the meeting,

“The aggression mounted on both sides,” she said, adding she herself became a bit aggressive. “I was not happy with how they were disrupting the meeting.”

District staff called police at committee members’ request, and officers determined the mask requirement was clearly stated on the meeting agenda, according to law enforcement, who said one attendee eventually left after being allowed to speak briefly without a mask.

“The meeting continued with the mask mandate having been made clear from that point on,” police said. “There were no actionable violations and the police concluded their assistance.”

The committee recessed during the conflict and resumed the meeting after about a 30-minute break, eventually moving to the larger overflow room so as to be better heard, according to Maxon-Kennelly.

“The bulk of these policies were not very controversial,” Maxon-Kennelly said of the agenda.

During a discussion of daily in-school mask breaks, committee members confirmed that in addition to lunch, elementary students would have two mask breaks, middle school students would have one, and high school students would take breaks during passing time.

Eight residents out of the roughly 20 in attendance gave public comment, with some offering constructive suggestions related to how to handle masking requirements.

“The vast majority of it was about masking and being opposed to the mask mandate,” Maxon-Kennelly said. “The public comment was passionate, but I also think it was, overall, positive.”

Mandatory school masking has been a somewhat controversial topic in Fairfield in recent months. In June, one Fairfield parent crowdfunded an effort to make and distribute 200 lawn signs demanding authorities, “Unmask our kids.” Not long after that, Fairfield Board of Education members all signed a letter to Gov. Ned Lamont, asking, to no avail, that he stop the state's school mask mandate.

Lamont signaled Tuesday that there would be no immediate end to his executive order requiring masks in school. The order is set to remain in effect through Sept. 30.

"Right now our existing executive order says, 'everybody in school wears a mask, K through 12,' " the governor said. “At this point, I don't see that changing."

Coronavirus cases in Fairfield and Connecticut have been rising in recent weeks amid the spread of the highly transmissible delta variant. Fairfield students return to class Aug. 30.