Holmdel Students Must Wear Masks, Despite Parents' Pleas

HOLMDEL, NJ — Holmdel students will have to wear a mask in the upcoming school year, superintendent Lee Seitz said during a meeting on Wednesday, where many parents pleaded for the school board to find a way around Gov. Murphy's statewide mandate.

"On Sept. 9 either don’t send your child to school or send them without a mask. And do it every single day after that and make them deal with it," one resident implored.

Seitz stated very clearly that he would follow the governor's executive order.

"Board of Education members take an oath that says we must follow the law, despite whatever personal feelings they may have," he said, adding also that the board would do its best to get students outside as much as possible.

READ MORE: NJ K-12 Students Must Wear Masks This Fall, Gov. Murphy Says

For about two hours, members of the public spoke, mostly against the enforcement of the mask mandate. Some cited statistics to argue that masks don't work or that they're less important than other aspects like proper ventilation. Others told personal stories about how their kids have been deeply impacted by being forced to wear masks constantly, occasionally getting emotional.

Many spoke of distrust in government — using works like "tyrannical" — and asked to see the science driving officials' decisions. A few parents even threatened to pull their kids out of school.

"They’re gonna sue us? Listen, you got the people behind you. We gotta fight because if we don’t it's over," a resident said.

Seitz said that students would have lunchtime inside their classrooms, prompting one resident to ask why cafeterias would be closed when Holmdel had the resources to keep them open safely and to argue that this will impact students socially and mentally and make them lose out on an "experience."

Seitz responded by saying that safety outweighed the importance of that experience, adding that keeping kids apart in a cafeteria setting was harder to manage.

"We wanna control the situation. Lunch is a time when masks are not worn," Seitz said. "I think the cafeteria is a nice experience but students, when they're in the classroom, have a full classroom of students (...) They have time outside when they can socialize, without masks. I don’t think the cafeteria experience is that important, other than it becomes the responsibility of the parent to make the lunch."

The superintendent didn't completely rule out to option of having students get together for lunch in the future. According to the official, the board is working with the custodian staff to see if they can set up tents and get kids outside.

"As we proceed to through this school year when we have opportunities to provide a better environment for socialization we'll do that. We just can't do it right now," he said.

Less than a handful of residents who spoke up showed support for mandatory mask use. One parent said that last year before Easter his son's whole class had to be quarantined when a student tested positive. Multiple family members subsequently tested positive, including a six-month-old.

"While all the improvements that have been made at the school are undoubtedly invaluable for protecting everyone in the school last year, this year and for many years to come, it is extremely important that we continue to require students and teachers to wear a mask," he said. "To this day I continue to suffer the side effects of being sick and have been hospitalized recently."

Another resident brought up Middletown's resolution ask Gov. Murphy to rescind executive orders 251 and 253.

READ MORE: Middletown BOE Sends Resolution To Gov.: Drop The Mask Mandate

Middletown BOE Backs Off Parental Notes To Exempt Mask Wearing

"Many of us have been following the courageous efforts by the Middletown Board of Education in the past week. While I'm disappointed by the outcome, I'm certainly not surprised," another resident said.

While acknowledging that the district is bound to follow state laws, she insisted that the board take action, suggesting for example a coalition with other school boards.

"Board members, I know your hands are tied here, but I do ask that you fight for these kids," she said. "We have to fight. And I don’t know what that looks like, but we can’t just stop here."

The meeting ran for well over three hours and after the public comment, 30 statements sent in prior to the meeting were read out loud. Some of them were from parents defending mask-wearing and stating that it would be "irresponsible" to go against the CDC and state government guidelines.

Seitz also announced that a survey sent around to Holmdel's parents had a significant number of replies, with at least 1307. The superintendent said the full results would be published next Monday, but shared that, as of now, almost 89 percent of respondents believed the board did an effective job at communicating the COVID-19 situation last year.

One resident sent in a comment about being alarmed after seeing a question (later erased) on the survey about whether parents would agree with the school district potentially not enforcing the statewide mask mandate.

Seitz assured everyone that the intention of the board with the survey was simply to gauge parent's feelings towards the issue.

"The survey was never intended to drive the decision-making process or to be an omen in the decision-making process. It was designed to give us an understanding of the feeling of our community," he said.

Another commenter asked what would happen to students who go into quarantine, seeing as there is no virtual learning for the upcoming school year.

"We are struggling with the students who may be quarantined," Seitz said. "Were not set up for a virtual program and as you may recall last spring the governor directed that all students would be back to school and of course did not give us any guidance or direction on what to do with those students who were quarantined."

One option the district is considering is to have students who are "legitimately quarantined" get access to Google Classroom. The plan should be finalized next week.

"We are not the average school district," Seitz also said during the meeting. "The executive order was designed for the average school district. So I think we deserve to be looked at. We haven't been given the opportunity yet. Hopefully, we will and we'll see what the outcome is."