Nora Grace-Flood Photo
12-year-old Sarah and friend Sloan at "Unmask our kids" rally.
Hamden Public Schools will lift their mask mandate on March 21.
That was the straightforward outcome of a rowdy three-hour meeting that began with a precautionary police presence, proceeded with raspberry-and-shouting arguments over race and politics and bullying, and concluded with cries of “Abuse of power!”
The in-person gathering at Shepherd Glen Elementary school took place just one week after a Feb. 28 Zoom meeting during which the Board of Education voted to maintain an in-school mask mandate despite Gov. Lamont’s lifting of the state requirement that same day.
On March 8, the Board of Education opted to connect face to face — or mask to mask — with the community for an update on Covid-19 considerations… and were met by roughly 50 individuals looking for an immediate reversal of the district’s earlier decision.
The Dude Confides
The Dude and his mother mask for the "first time in two years" in order to get permission to stand at the back of the BOE meeting.
“It was a fifth grader who brought this to our attention,” a man who identified himself as “The Dude,” told the Independent Tuesday night regarding the Board of Education meeting. At 6:30, he and a slew of other protesters were standing outside Shepherd Glen waving signage and chanting “Unmask our kids!” in advance of the community event.
“I get all of my information from a 12-year-old,” he proudly stated. “I go by the people, the people I speak to.”
“I don’t call them masks, I call them face coverings. I don’t call them vaccines, I call them experimental serums… I am a free thinker,” The Dude asserted.
“I don’t go to doctors, I don’t have health plans, I don’t take aspirin…. I’m not on social media, I don’t use the Internet, I don’t have any distractions, I don’t watch news or television,” he added.
“I’ve never been tethered by any constraints… Everything I say is based on opinion and has no grounding or backing or philosophy,” he said.
The Dude’s opinions: Masks “dehumanize people” and “fear is not healthy.”
His daughter Sarah’s opinions: “I do not wanna wear masks because they suffocate me and make everyone look weird.”
“Yep!” The Dude agreed with his daughter. “Some people live in the ‘new normal,’” he reflected, “But I live in the old reality. I know history… Human civilization is not based in safety.”
“There’s No In-Between”
At 7 p.m., The Dude and tens on tens of other anti-mask advocates greeted a cop waiting by the school doors — who had been called in case violence broke out — and created a semi-circle of signage and unmasked faces surrounding the Board of Education.
The meeting kicked off as promised with a presentation by Assistant Superintendent Chris Melillo, who provided the results of a survey interviewing 1,844 parents and students, as well as a small proportion of school staff, regarding whether or not to make schools mask optional.
Roughly half of respondents supported wearing masks and half rejected the mandate. Melillo analyzed the results by presenting “Side A,” who are in favor of mandatory masking, and “Side B,” who believe in making face masks optional, and identifying how strongly each side agreed or disagreed with a variety of value statements on a scale of one to five.
“The polarization is there, there’s no in between,” Melillo asserted. Those who wanted to keep masks in place voted on average a 4.9 in favor of maintaining masks while the other “side” stuck to a collective score of 1.0. Those same scores were mirrored in promotion and mandating of vaccines.
“But we all agree on certain things,” Melillo added, pointing to other statements included in the survey. “We all agree that we need to be concerned with the comfort level of our students and our teachers; We need to be concerned about the mental health of our children; We need to reinforce the fact that whether students are unmasked or masked, bullying should not be tolerated one way or another.”
The entire room applauded at those assertions by Melillo.
Superintendent Jody Goeler added that the district is currently working out a transition plan to support the ultimate goal of rescinding mask requirements, including two walk-up vaccine clinics at Helen Street Elementary on March 19 and Hamden High School on March 26, both between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
All schools are currently developing additional socioemotional learning programming to address “empathy, acceptance and tolerance” around optional masking as well as lessons on “speaking responsibly and communicating constructively,” Goeler said.
"Stop Being Racist!"
Participants shifted the focus from how students communicate, to how adults communicate.
“Board of Education members and administrators have been subject to hateful emails, threats, harassment and open hostility as we have seen tonight displayed,” Board of Education President Melissa Kaplan declared.
“I’d like to make things really transparent here,” Representative Siobhan Carter-David said. “The registered Democrats voted to keep the mandate in place and the registered Republicans voted to get rid of it.”
“I’ll make another observation that is just as obvious but probably too taboo to mention. The Republicans on the Board of Education are all white men —”
Carter-David was cut off by jeers and boos at that point. “Stop being racist,” a white woman in the audience said.
“I’m not gonna avoid what the conversation is, we’re gonna have it. ‘Cause there was also some thinly veiled racism in those emails,” Carter-David retorted.
“We didn’t send those emails,” the entirely white group of protesters repeated over and over.
Carter-David continued to call out the distinction between all those who attended the meeting to protest the Board of Education’s decision making — and the other 50 percent who wrote into the Board in favor of continuing mask mandates.
“There are many community perspectives, expert opinions and varied statistics to consider,” Carter-David asserted. “Your voice is no more important than all the teachers and parents who are not here today.”
As Democratic Board of Education members continued attempts to justify their decision and plead for better treatment, the audience continuously interrupted by shouting out statements of dissent — and blowing raspberries.
“You’re being very disrespectful and it’s not necessary,” Carter-David said as Melissa Kaplan banged her gavel.
“The bullying that takes place now will come to our schools!” Mayor Lauren Garrett shouted, jumping up from her seat in the audience. “So watch what you’re doing!”
"Freedom" & "Hypocrisy"
"How are we supposed to show our emotions if we're masked?" kids ask while looking at school poster.
After more than an hour of heated argument between BOE and audience members, participants were given a chance to make public statements.
Children, parents, and school educators unilaterally spoke out in favor of going mask optional, asking for “freedom,” happiness, and lessened hypocrisy.
Speakers argued that Hamden was failing to base its mask decision on “science,” pointing to the fact that students in schools have already been failing to mask consistently and effectively, that classroom transmission is consistently low, and Hamden’s 2.8 positivity rate may be as low as it’s going to get. They argued that masks worsen mental health and disrupt human communication and joy. They used the words “freedom” and “choice” to frame the conversation.
“Not a lot of students are complying with the mask mandate,” a student named Amelia said.
“Obviously we’re unmasked in lunch rooms where it’s relatively crowded … Yes, there’s safety to be considered here, but it’s no longer really an issue about safety,” she asserted, pointing to the low number of Covid-19 cases that are traced to classrooms.
“They’re just tired of being controlled by the mask mandate … I truly believe we need to have our choice back and we need our freedom again,” Amelia said.
“Everyday I used to get a ‘Hello, Alexios!’ and a smile walking into school,” Ridge Hill Elementary student Alexios Selearis remembered of pre-pandemic schooling.
Now, he complained, he just hears an angry “Pull up your mask!” when he opens the door.
Masks “steal away from us what makes us unique,” he argued. “We can’t show joy or sadness or any emotion.”
First-grader Alicia applauds speeches delivered by anti-mask advocates.
Alexios’ father, Mike Selearis, jumped in.
“If I were to go the doctor and the doctor told me I had one day to live, I would choose to be here right now,” he stated.
“The most important job I have on this earth,” the professional armwrestler continued, “is to provide the best life for my children.”
“Viruses have been around here forever, they’re gonna be around here forever. Their childhood does not last forever. We need to give them their childhood back today,” he said.
To uphold masks for “a slender chance that the mask might prevent infection — that doesn’t resonate. That really doesn’t resonate.”
“These past two years of having to wear a mask and not being able to see my friends have been extremely hard on me,” a Hamden middle schooler named Scott testified.
“I myself have asthma. Breathing through these masks has been really hard on me… I’ve been wheezing and breathing ever so heavily. I’m a kid with asthma trying to breathe through a thick piece of cloth.”
“And it’s also giving me anxiety because sometimes when I can’t breathe, I get scared,” he added. Remove the mask mandate, he begged: “I’m asking that from the bottom of my heart.”
The Dude’s daughter, Alicia, added: “So, I’m in first grade … I never got a chance to live my first year without a mask. My sister got a year. I don’t wanna wear a mask — I have a hard time making friends because I can’t see their faces.
“I want freedom. I don’t wanna wear a mask. My mom doesn’t wanna wear a mask,” she concluded.
Jen: "Kids are coexisting well."
One woman named Jen, who identified herself as a school administrator within another district that has dropped the mask mandate, said she “appreciate[d] the need to be thoughtful” in how Hamden goes about transitioning into mask-optional status.
“I do respect wanting to have a plan,” she said. “I was really worried there would be conflict about kids who wanna continue wearing their masks. I’m happy to say it didn’t — kids are coexisting well” in her district, she reported.
Community Compromise?
Police cars outside Shepherd Glen Tuesday.
Following those public statements, Board of Education members decided to go around the room and name the date they thought would be most appropriate to lift the mask mandate.
At the beginning of the meeting, BOE representative David Asberry said, the board had agreed that “We don’t even have a date, we don’t even have a vision.”
“Tonight we do,” he asserted. “And that’s from listening.”
The audience disagreed.
In the most heated moment of the night, Cecilia Shea, a Republican who ran for Legislative Council in 2021 but lost, stood up and yelled, “It’s my meeting, too!”
“Who are you folks to determine who is gonna decipher us?” she shouted. “You are not authorities! You are just members assigned to positions!”
Board of Education members pointed out that they had run for their positions and won by a vast majority of votes over their competitors.
Lauren Garrett got out of her seat and told David Asberry to stop engaging with the protestors.
Soon, the board stopped saying anything as Shea continued: “You’re not here to rule over us! It’s my choice not yours! You’re there to comply and be mediators!” The crowd cheered.
“You can adjourn the meeting at any time!” Hamden’s Chief of Staff Sean Grace stated loudly over the chaos.
BOE President Melissa Kaplan repeated the warning she had said multiple times that night: If the public didn’t calm down, she would cancel the meeting and there would be “no vote whatsoever.”
“You work for us, Melissa!” Shea screamed.
Garrett got up and sat alongside the Board of Education members, attempting to assert a sense of control.
“Abuse of power! Abuse of power!” Cecilia Shea called out.
“I stand ex officio on this board!” Garrett replied.
Finally, as the audience chanted “Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow!” three BOE members spoke out in favor of March 14, three in favor of March 21, and two in favor of the 28 as potential dates to lift the mandate.
At the beginning of the meeting, the motion on the table had been to vote whether or not to lift the mask mandate on April first.
The final decision saw four individuals — Mariam Khan, Melissa Kaplan, David Asberry and Reu’el Parks settling on March 21 — and the Board’s three Republicans — Austin Cesare, Gary Walsh and Kevin Shea — voting in opposition.
Siobhan Carter-David abstained.
The decision made, disgruntled protestors gradually exited the building, signs trailing behind them.
When a professional arm wrestler and "The Dude" are making more sense than the Board of Education and mayor, then you know your town is in trouble.
And when diverse cities like NYC and Boston have already dropped mask mandates for school kids, you can't claim Hamden is racist for doing the same.
And when Democrat and Unaffiliated citizens stand along Republicans, et al. against the mandates, you can't say it's a political culture war. It's really all about power and how it's being used on people. Stand with people.