Middletown BOE Backs Off Parental Notes To Exempt Mask Wearing

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — The Middletown Board of Education has backed off an idea allowing parental notes to exempt a student from wearing a mask, after the school district received a threatening late-night phone call from Gov. Phil Murphy's team, saying the governor would sue if the district attempted this.

"Late last evening I received communication from the governor's office that if the district moved forward with the policy, then the state of New Jersey would immediately sue the district, seeking an injunction," said Middletown Board attorney Bruce Padula at the Tuesday night BOE meeting at High School North, which was before another packed house.

Some of the pro-mask parents clapped upon hearing Murphy wants to sue the district.

Board member Frank Capone, who helped write the parental note exemption, said he would "proudly stand behind" what he wrote and face a legal battle with the Murphy administration, who he called "King Murphy."

"Over the past eighteen months, Phil Murphy has governed and cast executive orders that we have been forced to comply without any input from elected officials at the Township or Board of Education," he said. "Our legal counsel was informed at 10 p.m. last night that King Murphy does not approve of the parent's right to inform the district of any medical issues pertaining to mask wearing and has now issued executive order 253, to disallow our policy ... I would proudly stand behind and ultimately be forced to comply by court order by which has been threatened. Or we can amend the policy. I will stand with this board either way."

"Make no mistake about it: King Murphy believes he should make decisions on your children's health over you, as parents," he added.

"We'll go to court with you, Frank!" shouted one mom from the audience.

"Stand up for us!" shouted some furious Middletown parents.

"This board tried to stand up and what did the governor do? He changed the executive order," said an exasperated Padula as the meeting dragged on.

"I feel horrible about this," said Board member Jackie Tobacco. She also attacked the media for what she said was "irresponsible reporting" about what the board was attempting with their parental/individual notes. She accused the media of going to Gov. Murphy and misrepresenting to him what the Middletown BOE was attempting to do.

Padula said he removed parental/individual notes. So, to be clear: This fall, Middletown parents or students cannot submit notes they wrote to exempt a student from mask wearing. The notes have to come from a medical professional, clearly stating the child has a medical condition that prevents them from wearing a mask. It does not have to be a doctor.

"To get a medical exemption from a doctor is impossible," pointed out one mom, who said her daughter developed such bad migraine headaches from wearing a mask last year that she would throw up. Even then, the doctor would not give her a mask exemption, she said. Fairview Elementary would only grant the girl more "mask breaks," which her daughter did not want to take as it meant time in isolation from other students.

"Have you ever cleaned throw up off a king bed?" she asked. "I hope you consider my daughter and other peoples' daughters and sons who are developing problems from wearing masks all day."

Some on the Board interpreted that in his latest executive order, 253 issued Monday, Murphy is now requiring a doctor's note to exempt the student from wearing a mask in hot weather, a change from last spring.

"Let him live with it when a child gets sick," said Capone sarcastically. "You need a doctor's note to say it's hot in the building."

"We had children passing out last year, in middle school, passing out falling face forward," said Barry Heffernan. "I'm just concerned about having masks on kids running around in the heat. It's more moral than it is liability."

Middletown parents vow to never stop fighting Murphy's mask mandate

Dozens, possibly hundreds, of parents showed up at the meeting to demand masks be optional. There were, however, others in the audience who supported the mask mandate. You could usually identify them because well, they wore masks.

A big crowd rallied outside High School North to make masks optional, while a small group of 10-12 pro-maskers stood just a few feet away on Tindall Road. Cars honked in support for both groups.

"So if (Murphy) can sue you, can we sue you for when these masks are creating all these problems for my kids?" asked one mom, to cheers.

"To the folks who were triggered when I said last week that masking a child for eight hours a day is child abuse, I am doubling down on my comments," said another mom. "While you may consider Murphy's 'clarification' a win, just know that we will continue to fight this. This is not over. November is coming."

"Anything other than defying this mandate is unacceptable," said Belford mom Krystal Mason, the wife of a volunteer Middletown firefighter. The audience cheered loudly when she said this.

Parents on both sides of the mask debate hold back tears as they describe how their children have suffered

Some of the testimony, on both sides, was extremely heart-wrenching. Many of the parents became overcome with tears and emotion as they talked about how their children have suffered in the past year and a half of virtual learning/wearing masks and sometimes even contracting COVID.

One dad shared that his stepson, who has Down's Syndrome, nearly died when he got coronavirus last year. However, that dad said he doesn't think masks work, as his son still got COVID despite the entire family wearing masks constantly.

"Masks don't work," he said.

One woman played a very emotional clip of her 6-year-old daughter crying, saying that she cannot hear what her teacher or friends are saying through the masks, and that wearing masks all day gives her headaches, every single day.

But another mom said that her husband is very sick and her son lives in fear of him coming home, and transmitting coronavirus to him.

"I know he will say 'Mom, why didn't the adults protect me?" she wanted to know.

"Personal freedom is important to Americans," said one young woman who has an autoimmune disease. "But so is social responsibility."

Other students said they've been mask-less all summer, at camps, playing sports and at sleepovers with lots of other kids. Nobody got COVID, they said. Some Middletown students, at least one as young as six, said they would simply not be wearing masks this year, even if the school asks them to.

"The only bullies I see are the people preventing those from making decisions for their children," said mom Jacqueline Bailey. "Provide a scientific study that shows masks in school prevents children from getting COVID. There are none ... You will not silence me."

She pointed out Middletown kids were unmasked in schools for the bulk of last June and no child got COVID.

She also said mask mandates for kids is only a precursor to vaccine mandates for kids.

carly.baldwin@patch.com