Stanislaus County leaders, Modesto school board cave to local pressure on masks in class

If it seems we’ve been down this road before, with local leaders chafing at state COVID-19 guidelines and making political noise, it’s because we have.

Stanislaus County supervisors this week opted to placate angry and emotional people rather than show some spine. And this time they are joined by the Modesto City Schools Board.

Back in April 2020, most city mayors in Stanislaus County sent a letter to state officials complaining about the economic shutdown and demanding an “immediate and aggressive” local reopening, under the theory that we are different and deserve special treatment.

In May 2020, county supervisors announced that the county would not enforce public health guidelines violated by local businesses.

How did those actions work out for us?

Many people ignored official advice against gathering in small groups. Many restaurants packed in patrons, ignoring colored-tier rules based on local COVID numbers. And Stanislaus quickly became one of the worst-performing counties in the state, with case positivity and death rates among the highest anywhere.

At least 1,085 of our people lost their lives to a deadly contagious and largely preventable disease. Stanislaus was among the last of California’s 58 counties to emerge from the second-most restrictive tier just before the state reopened in mid-June.

Going it alone — trusting our gut, because we surely know what’s best for us, science and data be damned — was an abysmal and embarrassing failure.

It did not go well for us. It went horribly bad.

Did we not learn anything? Why are our memories so short? What makes us think things will turn out different this time, with the battle now about masks in school classrooms?

Despite a sudden spike in local cases and hospitalizations from the Delta variant — which is more contagious among children and adults alike — despite California public health officials mandating masks at school, despite The American Academy of Pediatrics advising that children over 2 should be masked in classrooms, despite the U.S. Center for Disease Control, U.S. Veterans Affairs and California State University all adopting more stringent standards — apparently, we still know better.

On Monday, the Modesto City Schools Board opted to send the state a letter requesting local autonomy.

On Tuesday, Stanislaus supervisors played to the crowd in their meeting chamber — ably serving as an echo chamber — and voted to send the state a letter supporting the schools’ demand.

The school district asked to “lift the statewide K-12 mask mandate and allow us to work with our local public health officials to craft facial covering policies suitable for the communities and students we serve.” Stanislaus at this moment is among 19 California counties experiencing high virus transmission — the worst designation there is. Any policy logically crafted to be suitable for the worst performing communities would be more stringent than rules elsewhere, not less.

Dr. Julie Vaishampayan, Stanislaus’ public health officer, laid out a solid case for caution, citing super-sobering data showing the Delta variant on the rise here — only to have supervisors essentially pat her on the head and listen to parents instead.

Stanislaus COVID surge among worst in CA

If California still had its color-coded tiers, we now would find ourselves in purple, Vaishampayan said — the bruised and battered rock-bottom, thanks to very scary illness numbers that have little chance of diminishing while we blithely ignore test results and insist that we know better than local, state and national public health experts.

On Wednesday, California public health officials recommended everyone resume wearing face coverings indoors. That was not hard to see coming. Yet clueless Stanislaus and Modesto school leaders want permission to go in the opposite direction.

Every indignant parent has a perfectly reasonable alternative: Keep your kid home. Do distance learning, if you’re convinced that your child will suffer physical, social and emotional damage from wearing a mask for a few hours on school days.

It’s sad that leaders, in their eagerness to get some parents off their backs, would quickly set aside expert advice on all levels. Playing to the crowd is a dangerous way to craft public policy, especially with precious young lives in the balance.

This story was originally published July 28, 2021 at 12:00 PM.