What I Saw at the School-Board Meeting

A snapshot of the dysfunction ravaging American politics and culture

My daughter’s best friend went to school without a mask earlier this week. She’s in second grade. She’s been wearing masks every day, and for longer each day than most other people in the country. She wears them at school. Then wears them while dancing at a local dance studio. But for one day this week — after the New York supreme court threw out the state’s mask mandate, and before a stay was granted ahead of an appellate court’s taking up the case — she went mask-free in an act of defiance.

And it was this sudden doubt thrown over the mandate that caused me to go to the most recent school-board meeting, and what I saw there was a snapshot of the dysfunction ravaging American politics and culture.

I had tried to mount a campaign over the summer and heading into September to change school policy. But the district insisted that the chain of authority went all the way up to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The guidance from Washington was translated by New York State directly into regulations at the state and county levels. But this week, suddenly, it seemed possible that authority over the school’s masking policy would drop down to the school-district level. A number of districts in Westchester County where I live have already indicated that when the mandate expires, they will go mask-optional. This was my chance to influence our own district.

So before what I saw at the board meeting, there was what I envisioned for it.