Turlock students told to leave school board meeting because adults refused to wear masks
Turlock Unified School District trustees asked students to leave their board meeting on Tuesday evening because some adults refused to wear masks.
Stanislaus County health officials ended the county’s mask mandate on Monday, but the California Department of Public Health requires all adults to wear masks inside school buildings when students are present.
Board President Lori Carlson reminded people of this as the meeting began. When Trustee Jeffrey Cortinas and several community members did not comply, Carlson said the board was “forced to discontinue student participation.”
Carlson excused the board’s two student representatives — high school students who participate in meetings as nonvoting members. She also directed Dutcher Middle School Principal Scott Lucas to tell two student honorees they could not attend.
“I’m disappointed with this result,” Carlson said.
To the high school board representatives, she added, “I’m sorry.”
This decision was made “in accordance with CDPH’s universal masking policy designed to protect students’ health, safety and ability to remain in school,” district spokeswoman Marie Russell said via email.
With the student representatives removed, Carlson said the meeting fell under the state’s COVID-19 guidelines for indoor public spaces, which require masks only for unvaccinated people.
Asked why the students were told to leave rather than the unmasked adults, Superintendent Dana Trevethan said the board had items on the agenda it needed to address. “It’s a board meeting, and it’s focused on board governance,” she said.
The superintendent said the board will look to pass a resolution requiring masks so this doesn’t happen again. Cortinas, the only unmasked trustee, did not respond to an email request from The Bee for comment by print deadline.
Later Wednesday, Cortinas said via email, “The real question is why did the district choose to remove the students?”
California local government agencies are required to provide public access to meetings under the Brown Act. Turlock’s school board livestreams meetings through YouTube, but members of the public can’t participate virtually.
People don’t have a constitutionally protected right to refuse to wear a mask, but people have rights to attend public meetings, said David Snyder, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition.
“Students who had done nothing wrong were required to leave a meeting that they have a constitutional right to attend,” he said. “That’s a problem.”
Some students permitted to stay
Students who were not attending the meeting in an “official capacity” were allowed to stay, Russell said via email. An 11-year-old spoke during public comment on her right to choose whether to be vaccinated against COVID-19, invoking a quote from “Hunger Games” heroine Katniss Everdeen: “We fight, we dare, we end our hunger for justice.”
Carlson and Trevethan read written updates from the student representatives.
“I didn’t ask the district to remove the students and would have preferred they stayed like the other students were able to,” Cortinas said via email.
During board member reports at the end of the meeting, Cortinas thanked County Superintendent Scott Kuykendall for issuing a resolution opposing the state vaccine mandate for students and staff. He said the district needs to look into actions regarding state mandates and consider how they affect staff.
He said he had a mild case of COVID-19.
“The only time I see a mask is when I’m in this room,” Cortinas said.
