By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
So far this year, Bowling Green City School District has seen fewer student COVID cases than other districts in the county – even though the city and BGSU campus have some of the highest case numbers in the county.
“Our students are doing a really good job with masks in school,” BG Superintendent Francis Scruci said during Tuesday’s board of education meeting.
“I take this decision very seriously and consider many factors, but I always come back to the most important consideration. That consideration is keeping our kids in school every day all year without loss of direct instruction due to being quarantined,” Scruci said last month when he announced that masks would be required for all students and staff.
“This decision is based on keeping our students safe, healthy, and in school.” A child who is masked regardless of vaccination status, may remain in the classroom based on the quarantine guidelines shared by the CDC, Ohio Department of Health, and Wood County Health Department.
While some other school districts in the region have been confronted by loud protests and parents vowing to vote out school board members, the opposition at Bowling Green Board of Education meetings has been limited to a few, civil speakers.
On Tuesday, Board of Education President Norm Geer approached a maskless member of the audience before the start of the meeting, asked that he wear a mask, and pointed out the masks at the back of the room. The man referred to the request as “tyranny,” but got a mask and put it on.
At last month’s school board meeting, two people spoke out against the district’s mask mandate. On Tuesday, one of them returned.
Paul Tyson, parent of three students in the district, again presented the board with a stack of material which he said proves that masks not only don’t prevent COVID, but are harmful for children to wear.
Tyson said children are not as susceptible to COVID, and few have contracted the virus in school settings.
“The reality is children are the least vulnerable,” he said.
Tyson presented information that he said refutes data from the CDC. He said wearing a mask can actually make healthy people sick. He spoke of a video showing that wearing masks results in insufficient oxygen levels for children reading or exercising.
Last month, Tyson presented the school board with 80 documents that he said showed masks are ineffective, and another 63 documents that show they are harmful.
While at the microphone, Tyson also complimented the staff at Conneaut Elementary for their handling of the bomb threat called into the high school earlier this month.
“The staff was remarkably calm,” when he picked up his child. “I was pretty impressed with the way staff handled it.”
Scruci gave the board an update on the evacuation process used after the bomb threat was called in. The district plans for such events, “but you never really know how things are going to go,” he said.
The evacuation of students to safe places went smoothly, and the coordination with the Bowling Green Police Division and the Wood County Sheriff’s Office went well, Scruci said.
