Maskless Braintree School Committee Members Cut Meeting Short

BRAINTREE, MA — A Braintree School Committee meeting ended early Monday night when two out of the seven committee members refused to wear a mask, on the same day a statewide extension on a mask mandate was confirmed.

One of the maskless committee members, Matthew Lynch, was at the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol last year. The other was Tom Devin, who has been on the committee for a decade.

On Monday, the Department of Education and Secondary Education extended the mask mandate for all Massachusetts public schools through February, meaning all students and staff must wear a mask when inside a public school building.

The meeting, which was held inside the East Middle School auditorium was cut short, postponing most of its agenda to the next committee meeting later in the month.

"Students staff and all visitors are required to be masked in our schools. I don't think any of us like this mask mandate: no one wants to be wearing a mask," said new chairwoman Lisa Heger during the meeting, looking over at the two members who were sitting maskless.

"However it is a mandate, and all members of the school committee should and must comply with that mandate so as a result, we need to figure out how we're going to hold school committee meetings in the future."

Lynch has often campaigned against statewide mask mandates, but Devin says his approach is more "do as I say - not as I do."

"I'm looking for consistency in my government. I believe we as American citizens can question our government, and I want more dialogue behind what Braintree is doing," citing the lack of mask mandate in play for government buildings. "I'm done with the hypocrisy, especially now that we know masks don't work."

"I don't want to be political - I've been vaccinated and done what my government has asked me to do, now let's have a conversation," Devin added.

Shortly after calling attention to the extended mask mandate, Heger said she would reach out to each committee member individually, suggesting the option of going fully remote for the next meeting or if the committee instead should meet in another town building.

"So with that, I will request to table the remainder of tonight's agenda to our next school committee meeting on January 24," Heger said, with the committee voting to adjourn the meeting early.