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Vax mandates a point of contention in RVC
Before Gov. Kathy Hochul’s new mask mandate went into effect on Monday, the debate about coronavirus protection rolled on at the Rockville Centre Board of Education meeting on Dec. 9. Many parents who came to the South Side High School auditorium voiced their anger with recent decisions by the board and Acting Superintendent Robert Bartels on seating at school events. They asked district leadership to advocate for avoiding mask regulations, as have a few other districts.
In front of a packed auditorium, Bartels explained his and the board’s decision to have separate seating sections, one of them socially distanced, at the Dec. 6 and 7 middle school winter concerts, which some parents called “segregation.” Bartels said that many vaccinated people asked to sit in the socially distanced section, and that he and the board were trying to follow the protocols put in place by the Nassau County Department of Health to make contact tracing easier in the event of positive Covid-19 tests.
Everyone was invited to sit in the socially distanced section, Bartels said. “There is no segregation going on,” he added as a chorus of frustrated parents signaled their disagreement.
Bartels said he had had some requests to open events back up, since most village residents are vaccinated, and they could come if they felt safe. “Is that the compassionate approach?” he asked. “To ignore people’s feeling for safety during a pandemic? I believe we, as a district, are better than that.” With the infection rate on Long Island at its highest — over 6 percent — since last February, Bartels said, school events must not be overcrowded.
According to the board, 50 students and 17 district staff members were in quarantine last Thursday.
Bartels announced a change in event attendance policy, from two guests per student to four at high school athletic events, and a general-admission student section of no more than 30. At home varsity games, JV players will be allowed to attend to offer their support, and vice versa. Several parents expressed their appreciation for those changes, but said they wished they could go further.
“We are not choosing one scientific method over another. None of it makes sense. I agree with that,” Bartels said, speaking candidly. “However, with my superintendent hat on, I am not trying to justify the protocols, but I have a duty to follow them and to be as reasonable, inclusive, responsible and compassionate as I can be for everyone in this community.”
Though he was applauded for his candor, some parents said they were angry that he would not fight what he sees as inconsistent rules. But as the district’s legal counsel, Eugene Barnosky, explained, the Massapequa and Locust Valley school districts filed lawsuits against the state, arguing that the authority to issue a mandate belonged to the State Legislature, but were rejected by the State Supreme Court in Albany County.
“The enforcement of absurd rules is the opposite of leadership,” attendee William Cooney said near the end of the three-hour meeting. “This board’s segregation policy is unjustified, scientifically indefensible, and given that you are under no mandate to implement it, arbitrary and capricious.”
During the meeting, a group of parents outside the auditorium organized a toy drive to call attention to the anti-vaccine-mandate cause. Kathleen Gamberg helped run Operation Toy Drop, and claimed to have collected over 200 toys with messages about freedom, advocacy and choice for their children. The toys were displayed in front of the school administration building, across from the high school.
In a letter to Hochul that was emailed to district residents, Bartels detailed his opposition to Assembly Bill A8378, which is in committee in Albany, and would require students to be immunized against Covid-19 to attend school. The letter outlined Bartels’s worry that if the bill becomes law, parents will pull their children out of school.
The increasingly contentious nature of the meetings has also been a topic of discussion. “As a student at South Side, I just feel a little disappointed with some of the recent events that have taken place at the Board of Ed meetings,” Liz Vopel said at the meeting. “We need to end this divisive chapter immediately. Students are noticing and being affected by this behavior. It’s imperative to put our differences aside and focus instead on our similarities, the main one being why you are all here tonight: the students in our district.”
