On Dec. 16, 2021, Anchorage School Superintendent Deena Bishop announced, “I am confident that ASD is able to transition to parent-informed masking when we return to school on January 3. It means parents will consider the risk levels in their family and decide for themselves if they want their child attending school wearing a mask.”
Read Bishop’s letter to parents here.
In other words, masks would now be optional upon return to school after the holiday break.
To those of us under the impression the superintendent has this authority, we politely thanked her and made happy announcements to our children. Perhaps common sense was still alive, as a faint heartbeat was detectable.
But this was not to be the case. The majority of the ASD Board had other plans.
Apparently, the ASD superintendent is only authorized to act in a totalitarian and tyrannical way on this issue. If at any time the superintendent acts in a freedom-minded or liberty-loving manner or attempts to return medical decisions to their rightful parental prerogative, that authority can be rescinded by the board.
At Monday’s School board meeting there was orchestrated public upheaval. This time, it was in favor of keeping our kids mandatorily muzzled. Almost without exception, those testifying to the board in favor of retaining the face diapers for kids projected their own fears and insecurities onto a defenseless youthful population.
There was one articulate counter-argument by board member Dave Donley, who spoke against continuation of the harmful face farce that is mandatory masking. Donley noted that Anchorage is the last vestige of mandatory school masking in Alaska. Everywhere else, people have come to their senses on this issue. It was clear that the only ASD Board member that did his homework was Donley
The other scared and shivering six have no intention of lifting their boot from the mouths and noses of the children in Anchorage. After return from Christmas break, they want at least two more weeks to flatten an already declining Covid case curve.
The paranoia of the six quivering ASD board members is in regards to a problem we do not have. The new Covid variant is a problem to very few indeed. In South Africa, where it was first discovered a month ago, the Omicron variant has already peaked and is on the decline.
Six of seven Anchorage School District board members receive a failing grade. They were asked to show their work but instead showed only their emotions. They do not possess the necessary qualifications to preside over the health and well-being of our children. This is the role of the parent.
Read: Superintendent Deena Bishop’s Dec. 21 message to parents
As a gesture of solidarity with our students and teachers, I suggest the six board members who voted for this policy extension, wear a mask for 6 to 8 hours a day without removing it. For Board member Donley, masking is optional.
Even the progressive, left-leaning Anchorage Assembly brought an end to their misguided mask mandate on Dec. 7. That was not enough for six.
Congratulations to Superintendent Bishop for exposing the root of the problem. The problem we have is fear and six ASD board members who do not want to give up their grasp of tyranny around the throats of Anchorage children. They are paralyzed by fear and unable to think rationally.
There is a growing realization by many that the Anchorage School Board is too big for its britches (with the exception of Donley) and in a practical sense, just too big to respond appropriately to anything that matters and in a timely manner. ASD is the fully loaded tanker ship that takes five miles and 25 minutes to come to a stop.
The Bligh Reef of declining enrollment, ever decreasing test scores and the resulting degradation of our Anchorage school system lies straight ahead.
It is time to consider breaking up the ASD monopoly and creating several smaller school districts in its place. It is also time to consider another option of creating school board seats based on specific districts and doing away with “at large” elections. Either one or both would be fine.
It takes a change of the municipal charter. That will not be easy, but nothing worth doing is easy. The current situation is intolerable.
Dan Smith is a lifelong Alaskan and Anchorage resident.
