The Elephant In The Room
School superintendents revive local control directive but adherence to mask mandate continues to erode attempts at gaining public trust
Photo Credit: USA Today
Monday, on Twitter, a few Illinois school district superintendents got active on the social media platform.
Not with the flowery public relations, hashtag-heavy, sunshine and juice boxes messaging typically served up on Twitter. They actually said something.
Vic Zimmerman is the Superintendent of Monticello Community School District, located about 20 miles southwest of Champaign. Zimmerman tweeted this out last Friday, publicly re-stirring the popular ‘local control’ narrative amongst administrators from over the summer:
Another downstate superintendent, Jennifer Garrison of Vandalia Community School District located about an hour northeast of St. Louis, hinted at some activity amongst her peers with a tweet of her own:
We don’t know the ‘multiple avenues’ Garrison refers to. She hinted in another tweet that there is more to come. Time is in short supply as fall weather forces everyone indoors, the holidays approach and a predictable November virus ‘wave’ will likely hit. These are all built in excuses for Governor J.B. Pritzker to stubbornly stick with his reckless mandates. He will gin up fear about a fall spike in cases, make bogus claims how masking will ‘save lives’ and politically, there is no pressure for him to reverse course. So why would he? If Pritzker can twist the screws, he will.
So while administrators send out virtue signal-tinged messaging about solidarity and unity, it’s what they continue to not say - and the persistent contradictions - that clouds any progress that may be occurring.
From the database of Covid absurdity - a county in Maryland, Prince George, deemed it necessary to institute a mask mandate for kids ages 2 to 5. It’s part of the county’s “phased re-opening” plan.
I’m sure parents of toddler Tommy’s all over Maryland are thrilled to host indoor parties this winter. Have a few licks of that chocolate sundae, then wipe it right off with that nifty Spiderman mask, kiddo!
No different here in Illinois as the indoor mandate is statewide. The state-sponsored advertisements that ran on television recently using masked children are not public service displays of our virtuous humanity. No, quite the opposite, they are public health agency versions of the UNICEF pictures used for that charity’s fundraising campaigns - this is what abuse looks like.
All of this, for a virus “involved” in the deaths of less than 500 children aged 0-17.
From the CDC website Tuesday:
If we are judged by how we treat our most vulnerable, then we have failed miserably deep into our second year of Covid Hysteria.
The issue of forced masking remains the elephant in the room when we talk about schools.
Last week, I highlighted the hypocrisy of superintendents at a conference in Springfield. While they enjoyed towel-snapping each other at a three-day insider’s conference, unmasked in several photographs from the event, their students sat in classrooms, gagged physically and censored emotionally. Twitter feeds from the Illinois Association of School Administrators, the organization that put on the conference, were filled with self-improvement imagery and notes-to-self about ‘battling through adversity’ yet no acknowledgment of their own stake in the affliction of others.
Calls and emails to the IASA, asking about the pictures of unmasked attendees, went unreturned. I didn’t expect an answer.
Understanding all of this context, it should come as no surprise that the association’s leaders would bungle another public relation.
Zimmerman recently left his post as IASA president. At the conference, he handed the reigns over to his successor.
I guess masks were optional at that moment on stage. But not for the eight-year-olds at one of the elementary schools Zimmerman (the one on the right in the photo) is charged with.
Zimmerman said this Monday on Twitter:
We have Zimmerman on the record saying he is in favor of masking children. And we have a photo of him unmasked at an indoor event.
What’s that again about rules for thee?
So we’ve established the duplicity.
Some context is needed around recent events.
Zimmerman’s tweets this week were in response to a question asking why his district and others don’t go the route of the legal system in fighting Pritzker’s mandates. It worked with three downstate districts that challenged the probationary status slapped on them by the Illinois State Board of Education. A judge ruled in their favor and the districts are able to instill ‘local control’ - i.e., mask optional policies - and bypass Pritzker’s mandate.
With the legal precedent established, why not mount their own challenges and take on Pritzker and his public health footmen in court?
Zimmerman defended his district’s non-litigious stance:
Zimmerman’s ‘keep the kids in school’ line is consistent with what administrators have said since the summer. And he’s not wrong with the legal challenges - most have failed and Pritzker’s bait and switch with athletics (threatening to pull programs’ attachment to the Illinois High School Association for non-compliance) flipped public sentiment for mask defiance in many districts.
But regardless of these truths, we judge leaders by their actions. And the discrepancies by administrators like Zimmerman continue to pile up like useless PPE underneath a playground swing set.
In an interview with the DeWitt Daily News, Zimmerman teased what he thinks would be helpful guidance from Pritzker:
The next big piece of guidance would be be Governor Pritzker probably rolling back the mandates and letting us make decisions in consultation with our local health department based on our own Covid data. I haven’t heard that’s going to happen but that would be the next logical thing. We’re not going to be wearing masks forever. There has to be some type of an exit strategy and I think the best one is to allow school districts to talk to their health departments and make decisions that in the best interests of their districts based on data. And our data is looking a lot better than it was a few months ago.
Three times in that sound bite, Zimmerman used the word ‘data.’
Once a week, his district publishes weekly Covid reports, similar to that of hundreds of other districts across the state.
It would appear, based on Zimmerman’s comments to the DeWitt newspaper and the Covid reports, that he is a man who gives credence to data and how metrics guide decision-making.
Yet, when pressed on Twitter about current data and how it dictates policy, Zimmerman had this to say:
‘Nothing to review?’ This is same administrator grounding local control argument in data, yet admits he’s not reviewing the data.
So what is it Dr. Zimmerman? Does the data matter or doesn’t it? We know it doesn’t matter to bully boy Pritzker because he’s never once explained specific metrics when justifying autocratic decisions.
What’s the plan? Just twiddle the thumbs until the Dark Lord signs another decree with how-to instructions? ‘We’re not going to be wearing masks forever’ you say? Forever is a mighty long time but If Zimmerman bothered to read Pritzker’s latest statements about masking, he’d know we’re going to be waiting an indefinite period for him to change his mind.
These represent missed opportunities for Zimmerman to speak out against what the data should tell him - that forced masking has no impact on the health and safety of his school community. Zimmerman had space to advocate for the well-being of his student constituency. Instead, he chooses to take the political high road.
Why are parents fed up? Because of chronic dishonest leadership from those in power.
Administrators can tweet all they want about unity and togetherness and school pride. But until someone stands up to Pritzker and does with their actions what all reason-minded members of our population know to be true - that school-enforced masking is ridiculous and harmful - all of the “spirit” messaging is nothing more than slogan-hustle poppycock.
Leaders don’t make excuses. They find solutions to problems.
Enough already. It’s time to get the masks off.
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Love this real example of journalism. Keep shining the light, Jon! Kudos