The Middletown Board of Education’s decision to hold its meeting at the VFW curtailed the First Amendment rights of the public and diminished the public’s ability to take part in the democratic process. Clearly, allowing masks to be optional at the meeting, in defiance of the spirit of executive orders from the governor, discouraged those that believe in the necessity of masking from attending. That allowed a vocal minority that does not believe in the science behind masking to give the impression they represent a greater percentage of the public than they really do. Polls show they are nowhere near a majority. In a similar counter-transparency move, the Board’s decision to eliminate the Zoom participation option had the consequence, intended or not, of discriminating against the disabled and those at a high risk for Covid. Anyone, regardless of their viewpoint, faced the stark possibility of contracting Covid in order to engage in something as commonplace and essential as attending a board of education meeting. It was a reckless, dangerous, and machiavellian maneuver by officials on the Board.
We are on a slippery slope. The Board is setting the precedent of holding its meetings in places and under circumstances that constitute a health hazard to the public, apparently in order to intimidate their critics and embolden their supporters. They have no more right to hold meetings without masks, then if they held them in a building that was structurally unsound, contained mold, or was a fire trap. Covid has been weaponized by the Board in a blatant attempt to silence those who will not stand by and let their children become the latest victims of the Trump Death Cult..
Today, the issue is masking in schools. Tomorrow it may be vaccinations, critical race theory, or any number of issues the Board, leaning heavily to the far right, feels threatened by. Left unchecked, they can simply hold meetings under conditions designed to suit their need to stifle opposition and support the irrational demands of their supporters. Ironically, for a movement that espouses unfettered freedom to breathe without a mask, it is freedom itself that is being suffocated by this Board.
Mark Grieco
Middletown
