Chaos Erupts Over Masking At North Penn School Board Meeting

LANSDALE, PA — All the pandemic's political tension and strife boiled over during a public meeting of the North Penn School Board this week, as officials moved forward with plans to mandate masking for elementary school students to start the year.

The Board, during a regularly scheduled work session, agreed to make a formal recommendation during next Thursday's meeting to alter their health and safety plan for the coming school year. The previous plan had stated that masks would be optional at all levels.

Rising COVID cases and the more contagious delta variant have contributed to the concern. Montgomery County's positivity rate has ballooned from 0.5 to 4.2 percent in recent weeks. North Penn officials also pointed to the fact that elementary school children are too young to be vaccinated.

During the public comment section, parents and community members were vocal on both sides of the issue. Though comments were heated and often inflammatory, the meeting remained in relative cohesion at first.

Detractors of the proposal said that the Board was using the virus for political gain.

"This is the national COVID political debate at its most personal and political," said Jessie Bradica, a former school board candidate, Upper Gwynedd Township resident, and mother of three in the district. "This is a nine out of nine Democratic board that has pushed political agendas to advance personal political careers."

As the public comment section turned into the Board's deliberation, and it became clear there was support for the idea of requiring masks for elementary school students, some audience members became disruptive. Superintendent Curtis Dietrich and Board members asked for order several times.

"Show them the respect they showed you," Dietrich pleaded.

Order was lost after a little more than two hours, however, with complaints turning to shouts and numerous verbal arguments breaking out. After the Board voted unanimously to approve the measure, things escalated, and police were called with a report of a "public disturbance." The meeting was prematurely adjourned.

Both the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Montgomery County Office of Public Health have followed CDC guidance in stating that masks should be worn indoors, regardless of vaccination status. Individual districts have final say on what becomes required policy, and they are free to enforce stricter or looser rules depending on the presence of the virus in the local area.

Several districts nearby, including Norristown, have already made decisions to make masking universal.

The nature of the meeting led some to call for a police presence at future events. Board member Tina Stoll said that community members had reached out to her with concerns.

"The number of text messages, emails and phone calls from people checking in today to see how my fellow board directors and I are doing after the contentious SB meeting last night has been truly heartwarming!" she shared. "Thanks to everyone for their support- it means a lot to us!"

North Penn Stronger Together, an educational group that ran a platform of conservative candidates against the incumbents in 2020, called for civility and cooperation.

"We understand and sympathize with the frustrations of the community," they said in part of a statement issued Wednesday. "We believe we need to work on building meaningful and respectful dialogue so eruptions like last night don't happen again. We pledge to maintain civility and decorum and ask the same from our community members. There is much work to be done."

A video replay of the entire meeting is available below: