Locust Valley Board of Ed continues to fight for mask choice

If parents want their kids to attend school with masks, they have that option . . . numbers will spike seasonally like we’ve seen, and the virus will never go away. We learn to live with it and move on.”

Joseph Gee, Locust Valley School District parent

The Locust Valley Board of Education sent an email to district parents on Jan. 26, advising them that a “special meeting” would be held at 7:30 the next morning. There the trustees voted unanimously to suspend the district’s indoor masking requirements.

“It shall be the policy of the Board of Education that each Locust Valley Central School District teacher, student staff member and/or visitor will have the individual discretion to determine whether they will wear a face covering while on district property,” school board President Brian Nolan said, reading the board’s decision.

But two days earlier, a state appellate court had granted a victory to Gov. Kathy Hochul in a lawsuit filed by Long Island parents against the governor’s school and indoor-space mask mandate, which claimed that the mandate was unconstitutional because she lacked the authority to impose it. A Nassau County State Supreme Court judge struck down the mandate, but the appellate court stayed the decision pending the state’s appeal, allowing the mandate to be extended until March 2.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman issued executive orders on Jan. 6 that, among other things, directed all boards of education in the county to vote on whether children, parents and staff should be granted the right to choose whether to mask up while in school.

Blakeman has held two more news conferences outside the legislative building in Mineola, at which he has voiced his support for parental choice on mask wearing in school. On Tuesday, dozens of maskless adults and children attended the latest news conference, many carrying signs decrying mask wearing. Among those showing their support for Blakeman were Margaret Marchand, vice president of the Locust Valley school board, and Trustee Lauren Themis. Nolan said they were not representing the LVCSD in an official capacity.

“Unfortunately, we just heard from the Appellate Division,” Blakeman said. “. . . But we’re not going to take another month of our kids being masked against the choice of their parents. We’re going to make our voices heard so that they hear us up in Albany.”

Blakeman called on Hochul to release the “metrics” she will use — statistics showing the decline in Covid-19 infections and deaths — to eventually lift the mask mandate. Because she has not, he said, he doesn’t believe those guidelines exists.

The Appellate Division, New York’s midlevel appeals court, likely won’t hear arguments in the case before the state’s temporary mandates expire, on Feb. 10 for indoor public spaces and on Feb. 21 for schools.

“Our district voted [to go] maskless last year, and then the governor, sadly, overruled it,” Joseph Gee, a Locust Valley parent, said. “If parents want their kids to attend school with masks, they have that option . . . numbers will spike seasonally like we’ve seen, and the virus will never go away. We learn to live with it and move on.”

“I commend the Appellate Division, Second Department for granting a full stay to keep our masking regulations in place for the duration of our appeal,” Hochul said in a statement on Monday. “My primary responsibility as governor is to keep New Yorkers safe. Mask regulations keep our schools and businesses safe and open, protect vulnerable New Yorkers, and are a critical tools as we work to get through this winter surge.”

While some parents in the Locust Valley district are supportive of the board’s pursuit of a mask-optional policy, many parents say they worry that the switch could contribute to the spread of Covid-19.

“It’s not just about the kids — it’s about the staff,” Claudine Wizenberg-Rosenthal said. “If [it] spreads, there will be no school. Why in the world would you want to endanger the staff?”

And some parents say the school mask controversy is having an emotional effect on their children. “My kids, frankly, are terribly offended when their fellow students violate school rules and go unmasked,” said Sara Brownstein Goldman, of Lattingtown. “My kids aren’t comfortable in school with this environment, and are very anxious about getting Covid from unmasked students.”

Nonetheless, the Locust Valley School Board voted at its Jan. 27 meeting to join a growing list of districts filing letters to the appellate court to remove the stay, and uphold the State Supreme Court’s original ruling. The board voted to retain the law firm Rigondeaux LLC as pro bono counsel, and authorized the firm to file an amicus brief on behalf of the district.

Laura Lane and Kate Nalepinski
contributed to this story.