{"id":45011,"date":"2021-08-25T03:21:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-25T09:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-school-board-votes-no-to-mandatory-masks-for-students\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:22:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:22:54","slug":"montezuma-cortez-school-board-votes-no-to-mandatory-masks-for-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-school-board-votes-no-to-mandatory-masks-for-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma-Cortez school board votes \u2018no\u2019 to mandatory masks for students"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sherry
Sherry Simmons was the first speaker at Tuesday's emergency school board meeting discussing student mask-wearing.<\/span>Screenshot from YouTube<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

During an emergency board meeting Tuesday night, Montezuma-Cortez School District RE-1 voted not to mandate student mask-wearing at school.<\/p>\n

Board members Sherri Wright, Sheri Noyes, Tammy Hooten, Stacey Hall and Cody Wells voted against the motion to require them.<\/p>\n

Members John Schuenemeyer and Chris Flaherty voted to mandate masks.<\/p>\n

The district called for the meeting Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re recommending masks until the numbers go down,\u201d RE-1 Superintendent Risha VanderWey said before the vote.<\/p>\n

Since the start of the school year, 220 students have been quarantined, said Jaclyn Hall, RE-1 health services director.<\/p>\n

Assistant Superintendent Lis Richard said she thought 12 kids have tested positive for the virus in the district.<\/p>\n

At one school, seven staff have been quarantined, Richard said.<\/p>\n

Mitigation criteria are in place to exempt the district from imposing quarantines, of which the district would only have to meet one qualification, said Jaclyn Hall.<\/p>\n

For the district to qualify for the exemption, 70% of county residents age 12 or older would have to have at least one vaccination. As of Sunday, the figure was only 66%, Jaclyn Hall said.<\/p>\n

The next metric was 35 or less cases per 100,000 residents per seven days. As of Sunday, Montezuma County had 198.9 cases per 100,000 people per seven days.<\/p>\n

The district also could be exempt if it had a high rate of vaccination \u2014 70% of staff and students 12 and older with at least one shot \u2014 or a high rate of weekly testing \u2014 screening of 70% of unvaccinated staff and students.<\/p>\n

Jaclyn Hall applied for the state\u2019s weekly testing program, which will be rolled out in early September, she said.<\/p>\n

The only other standard that would exempt mandatory quarantines of individuals coming into close contact with those who tested positive is mask wearing of both parties \u2014 virus-positive and those in close contact.<\/p>\n

Jaclyn Hall said she was concerned the 70% vaccination threshold would change.<\/p>\n

Students with medical exemptions would be taken out of the equation, Richard said.<\/p>\n

Montezuma-Cortez High School is close to meeting the criteria to be classified as an outbreak site, Jaclyn Hall said.<\/p>\n

An outbreak would not cause a school to be automatically shut down. School closure would only commence if staff is reduced to a point where student learning would no longer be supported, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a fan of masks, I\u2019m not a fan of my kid wearing a mask,\u201d she said. \u201cBut if that\u2019s what it takes to keep a kid in school that\u2019s a price I\u2019m willing to pay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jaclyn Hall became emotional.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor some, the school setting is the only safe place for them to go,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s the only place that they eat a meal, and it\u2019s the only place they feel comfortable receiving mental health services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richard said that masking isn\u2019t a gray issue \u2014 but, rather, black and white \u2013 as it came down to either imposing a mask mandate for students and preventing them from quarantining, or allowing families the choice, but risking quarantines.<\/p>\n

Exposed parties are required to quarantine for 10 days, unless they show proof of full vaccination or a positive COVID-19 test within the past 90 days.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s kind of the decision: Do we quarantine all those kids, or do we not?\u201d Richard said.<\/p>\n

The board allotted an hour for residents to share their thoughts, with each speaker granted two minutes.<\/p>\n

The majority of speakers advocated against mandatory masks for students.<\/p>\n

Many questioned the effectiveness of masks, as well as the potential that they might cause more damage than good. One mother said her child constantly experienced negative symptoms like a sore throat from masks. Some speakers discussed the idea that children are not as adversely affected by the virus as adults or at severe risk for hospitalization.<\/p>\n

\u201cStop trampling on parents rights,\u201d said Sherry Simmons, the first speaker of the night. \u201cStop abusing our children.\u201d<\/p>\n

A speech pathologist who works with preschoolers expressed concern that young children, as well as those with articulation or sensory issues, autism or anxiety would suffer disproportionately from mask wearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey feel like it\u2019s suffocating. Their senses are so heightened, this little piece of fabric feels like it\u2019s burning in the skin,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re concentrating so hard on breathing, trying not to have a panic attack and trying to get their anxiety under control.\u201d<\/p>\n

One high school senior spoke, after previously sending the board an email with his thoughts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lost half of my high school career to COVID,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is my senior year, and I don\u2019t want to lose this no matter what. Everything in life has risks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several parents threatened to take their kids out of school.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s safety theater,\u201d said speaker Michael Jenson. \u201cIt makes you feel safe, but it doesn\u2019t make you safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other concerns about mask-wearing included worries that teachers were already stretched too thin and couldn\u2019t \u201cpolice\u201d student mask-wearing \u2014 and frequent at-home washing of the masks.<\/p>\n

Two speakers wore masks. They were the only speakers to challenge the majority stance.<\/p>\n

One of them has acted as a liaison for Native Americans with families in a hospital intensive care unit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our best course is the clear guidance from the CDC,\u201c she said. \u201dThere is a large Native population here who are at risk, and I haven\u2019t heard anyone speak for them yet so I wanted to do that.\u201c<\/p>\n

The other was a nurse who has a student enrolled in elementary school in the district.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working with an incredibly vulnerable population who are not yet eligible for the vaccine,\u201d she said. \u201cIf my daughter gets COVID, and she gets her friend sick, who then gets Grandma sick, and she dies \u2014 that does matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

The board deliberated for an hour after the time for public comment was over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

emergency meeting, RE-1 board votes 5-2 against mandate <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[155,28,36,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-45011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45011"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86312,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45011\/revisions\/86312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45011"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=45011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}