The White Hall School District held a special called meeting on Tuesday, August 31st to address the concerns of parents in regards to the mask mandate that the school board members unanimously voted to enact before the start of the 2021-2022 school year. This mask mandate is expected to last until a later date which then the board plans to reevaluate depending on the circumstances.
The board allowed six parents that were against and six that were for the mandate to speak about their concerns with a five-minute time limit per speaker. That time limit permitted each side to have 30 minutes each to address their concerns.
A lot of the parent’s concerns consisted of not being able to voice their opinions on the option of a mandate and the board making decisions that some believed should be left up to the parents. Of those parents that were against the mandate was Laura Golden who originally spoke with Deltaplex about her concerns. Golden was also the first to speak on her concerns at the meeting.
Of the speakers that were for the mask mandate was Dr. Amy Cahill who also has had her children graduate from the White Hall School District. Cahill is a doctor at Jefferson Regional Hospital and talked about the realness of COVID-19 and the effectiveness of the mask in preventing the spread of the virus.
After listening to the concerns from both sides of the topic, the board unanimously voted to keep the same mask mandate in place, until October in which when the board will reevaluate if the mandate is still needed. Board Member and physician Raymond Jones told Deltaplex why he and the board made that decision.
