Fort Worth ISD Special School Board Meeting August 17, 2021

001[Music] actually open with a quorum present at this time we will hear public comment please let me remind you that because restrictions by the texas open meetings act board members may not engage in a verbal exchange about a subject that has not been posted we will listen and we will take notes but the board is prohibited from responding to any inquiries made during a board meeting on any topic not posted on the agenda however the board may reply with one a statement of specific factual information given in response to the inquiry two recitation of existing policy in response to the inquiry or three direct the person to visit with staff about the issue while the board listens to concerns of a general nature speakers should practice normal rules of decorum vulgar language and profanity will

002not be tolerated at this meeting as it is a public meeting and our students are watching today or they could watch any day as this is a part of recorded history additionally disruptions of the meeting will not be tolerated because we're here to do the work of the children of fort worth isd and our employees we ask the audience to refrain from interrupting speakers while they present to the board during this portion of the meeting and i ask you to consider that because everyone will have a turn at the podium please give them their time to speak any employee parent or other member of the public is asked to comply with the appropriate grievance policy to have a complaint heard pursuant to the applicable board policy per board policy bed local to allow everyone the

003opportunity to speak this evening no presentation may exceed one minute unless the speaker has prior approval for additional time because of the use of a translator speakers who require the resist the assistance of a translator are permitted double the allotted time of speakers who do not require the assistance of a translator furthermore a speaker may not relinquish his or her time to another speaker i ask that you please observe these rules for the purposes of effectively accomplishing the business of this meeting on behalf of the children of fort worth isd in a timely manner and our first speaker will be priscilla bowens followed by caitlyn o'connell owens is it on oh okay let me know when my time starts good evening my name is priscilla bowens i'm a doctor of veterinary medicine i have a

004master's in public health and i'm a licensed texas attorney but i'm not here for those reasons tonight i'm here as a concerned passionate mother whose child attends a fort worth isd school and is now being subjected to daily force disease infection amid high community spread in tarrant county this is wrong unchristian like unconstitutional and reeks of big government control which i thought true texans despise and it's potentially an abdication of power by local leaders because they seem to be confused on how to lead in the middle of a pandemic while my child is required by law to attend school for forced disease infection by masculine staff and students regarding the current litigation please join the lawsuits like like la jolla isd at all please do what you are supposed to do in regarding the traeger

005case stand and fight and appeal protect our children this is public school not parental choice school right we are in a public health pandemic not a parental choice pandemic right you are an independent student thank you not a thank you big government i am speaking i'm speaking time one minute you're finished i'm sorry next speaker thank you caitlin o'connell owens good evening i'm the parent to three children two seven and nine our oldest two are students in fort worth isd i'm asking the board to put in place a mass mandate at school offer a virtual option for vulnerable students and join litigation against abbott my healthy 34 year old husband got coveted 19 and became an icu patient at harris early on he survived but has lasting effects to his heart as well as brain

006damage our three kids had varying degrees of sickness while i remained asymptomatic our seven-year-old was sick with daily fevers pain and exhaustion for six months and was later diagnosed with an autoimmune disease turned on by his covid covet has deeply traumatized our family left two members chronically ill and while i understand that providing a virtual school option will result in a loss of funding that loss is undoubtedly less tragic than the loss of our vulnerable children we can't have school if our children are dead or incapacitated thank you hi i'm a parent of a elementary student kindergartner first time in fort worth isd thank you dr scribner for initially mandating a mass mandate last tuesday for listening to the experts in health it was such a sense of relief but then it was shattered on

007friday when just four parents decided to sue the district i'm here to ask you the board to do everything in your power to take legal action against governor abbott just like countless school districts and non-profit organizations have already done mass have become politicized when they should not be we must protect our children that have not been given the opportunity to be vaccinated especially those children that have health issues that make them high risk we are all capable of spreading the delta variant it does not matter if you have been vaccinated that is why it is prudent we push for universal masking i know you want to appease both sides of this debate it's hard to upset parents but there's one i one correct answer the idea of my choice my body does not apply here

008do we allow smoking in school no because it's detrimental to the smoker but because it hurts others that's why it is not allowed when a personal action can hurt or kill others thank you next speaker is amma paters de terre followed by courtney waite ever since i have been a mother my first responsibility has been to keep my children safe and to minimize risk from harm i put them to sleep on their back when they were infants i covered electric outlets i bought safe car seats i taught them to look left and right before crossing the street and to not accept candy for strangers the most recently i taught them to wear a face mask went in the middle of a pandemic i used to trust that school was a safe place for my children

009that my children were kept safe there too that trust has now been broken which is why my children have been absent from school for two days the cdc's recommendations for k-12 are based on the best available scientific evidence on how to control the spread of infectious disease government abbot's executive order is not evidence-based practice please do the right thing please vote to keep the mass mandate in place and please keep fighting for it thank you [Applause] courtney white will be followed by mitchell waverka thank you dr scribner for issuing a mask mandate last week as a fort worth isd educator and parent i sincerely hope that all of the members of the school board will follow your example please vote to protect children by requiring all students and adults to wear masks in our buildings

010masks however are the least we can do fort worth isd needs to offer a virtual academy for medically vulnerable students at least until a vaccine is available for children under 12. that being said classroom teachers cannot be asked to teach both an in-person and at-home learners as they were last year this was both unsustainable and ineffective and set teachers and students up for failure instead the district should use extra funds to pay for online only teachers who can focus on providing high quality virtual instruction and implement a transparent application process that provides equitable access across the district additionally we need to reinstate the protocols that kept us safe last year consistent social distancing monitored wellness checks robust contact tracing and mandatory quarantining for all contacts masks are a start but we're fighting over crumbs when

011we have a successful recipe for for safety let's use it thank you thank you mitchell leverka will be followed by ian cardin i'm vaccinated you can see that i'm wearing a mask i wear this mask because researchers and medical doctors have determined that it significantly reduces the chance that i could pass the virus to those around me something that i can do even though i am vaccinated i wear this mask because it's my responsibility as a member of a civil society to be considerate of those around me i wear this mask so that you all of you here in this room know that i value your health and safety this mask does not protect me it protects all of you grow up people act like the adults that our children need and deserve and please

012stop digging in your heels just because you don't like being told what to do or you find something un uncomfortable inconvenient or hard [Applause] i want everyone in this room to picture a classroom filled with children especially your own without masks on all it takes for every child in that room to be infected is for one person carrying the disease to be in that room for five minutes the average class period is 45 minutes in that situation without masking 16 percent of the children and teachers in that classroom will develop horrifying complications from that infection drowning in their own lung fluid multiple organ failure brain tissue suffocating and dying many of those 16 percent will die but not before suffering for days of the children in that classroom twenty percent will develop long coveted school's

013been in session for two days now children have been exposed for two days now can you really live with knowing that you held the power in your hands to stop it becoming three days and you did nothing let's all be very clear here tonight the consequence if the wrong decision is made is real death in real suffering your choice tonight is whether to save lives or end them thank you [Applause] kika funchal or fungal followed by shirley freeman do we have kika or shirley hello everyone um i'm here first of all thank you dr scribner for monday the mask next last week i am a fort worth sd teacher and i'm not here representing my school should they tonight i'm representing myself and my daughter who is a lily b clayton student fourth grade and

014she unfortunately she could not even meet her teacher yet because i'm not saying to her to school because i don't think that's safe to send my daughter to a school where masks are not mandated i cannot count on other parents to have just used common sense uh so this is just a scientific evidence to use the masks we are still in the middle of the pandemic and the most vulnerable right now are the kids the students k-12. please keep our kids safe thank you [Applause] thank you i'll call again for shirley freeman diana brandenburg good evening everyone thank you by the way for wearing masks it looks like 90 percent of you are wearing them i sure do wish our classrooms could reflect that my story is about a little boy who's my son charlie

015he has down syndrome i try very hard to include him my lifetime is to include this boy he's 11 and he's not vaccinated he's had open heart surgery he's had guillain-barre syndrome he's been in the nicu at cooks more times than any of you will ever imagine i would like a mass mandate in order for my son to go safely to his school that he's been going to since kindergarten it's serious now 2020 was hard but we made it through now children are getting sick over and over again across the country i think i've read 1900 thank you thank you [Applause] brianna guerrero followed by mendia whittier mandia whittier if you come forward we'll wait on brianna thank you section 504 of the rehabilitation act of 1973 clearly states that a free and appropriate education

016must be made available to all qualified students with disabilities in all cases the individual educational needs of the child should be addressed in the least restrictive environment possible for my child who has an approved 504 plan her least restrictive environment is in the classroom and without a mask mandate during a pandemic fort worth isd cannot provide her safe access to her least restrictive environment this is a federal violation under 504 a child may be placed in regular education classes with accommodations arguably masks fall under the scope of accommodations which are required to provide children with disabilities the free appropriate public education to which they are legally entitled teas students with disabilities planning supports guidebook says that covid19 pandemic has not changed the right to an lre so failure to implement a mask mandate puts you

017in non-compliance with section 504 thank you [Applause] lori chambliss followed by max crocmall as a school-based speech-language pathologist i understand the challenges of working when wearing a mask but because i do know that we need mass i accept those challenges i'm not going to assault your intelligence tonight with a bunch of statistics because i know we've all read them we've all seen them but i would like to share one story another sop in another district recently shared and heard you have been in school for two weeks during the two weeks one of our campuses is entirely on quarantine the other campus for the classrooms are shut down i don't want that to happen here last week you made the right decision by mandating masks this week i trust you to also make the right decision

018i have one comment to say to you stand your ground stand your ground stand your ground because i know i am [Applause] max crocmall will be followed by dr kathleen powderly good evening board i want you to know that masks are the bare minimum a masked mandate is the bare minimum you can do to keep our kids safe it's not enough it's a starting point there's all kinds of practices that were in place last year that you've abandoned and you need to put them back in we need social distancing we need robust contact tracing we need staggered lunch times we need controls on foot traffic we need a testing regime even like la unified school district is testing every student and staff person every week we have esr funds we can do this at the

019very minimum beyond a mask mandate we need a virtual learning academy there are sr funds for it there are contractors who can provide it they can provide teachers and you can get it up and running within just a couple of weeks it's time for you to take leadership and do everything in your human power to take care of our kids none of us want to play these games none of us want to play politics this is your job it's really not mine or anybody else here please do it take care of our kids and end this nonsense [Applause] thank you dr kathleen powderly will be followed by celeste hallbrook good evening my name is dr kathleen powderly my son thomas is here with me he is a senior at pascal high school i watched in

020horror at the may school board meeting as a mob took over the audience angry about vaccine advocacy and of a curriculum not even taught in fort worth isd to my vantage point they seemingly tried to intimidate the board i was equally as horrified this weekend as a pro mask mob interrupted a school supply giveaway and covet 19 vaccination clinic and seemingly tried to intimidate a member by going to their residence as a parent and communicate and a community member i apologize you were humans and you were parents we must stop the mobs we must stop the mob mentality and lawsuits and focus on what is going to get us out of this pandemic and that is to vaccinate to vaccinate and to vaccinate thank you [Applause] thank you celeste holbrook will be followed by carol

021quinnery i would like for you all to imagine that your daughter fell off her bike and her handlebar went into her stomach and she's in the er and i would like for you to imagine that your doctor is treating you in the lobby because that's what they have to do because all of the icu beds in all of north texas are full of coped patients okay even if you even if you have a bed you do not have staffing and resources i am i have a phd in public health and my my husband is an er doctor he comes home weeping every night because he cannot make the choices that he needs i am asking that you do what you can to fight this restraining order and institute a mandate that requires my two children

022to wear a mask so that your children have a hospital bed to go to when they need it for covet or not [Applause] thank you carol quinnery will be followed by carrie english and i'd like before you start this this is starting to get you're always the one that leads at the time when it gets noisy please respect the people there on the podium you'll find your time there too but i ask that you take a breath and you respect the people that are on the podium thank you good evening ladies and gentlemen my name is carol guineri i am the grandmother of two fort worth isc isd children since the large majority of some feel like a mask is the no all end-all do-all to stop the spread of covid 19 and the delta

023variant those people who choose to wear the mask are protected they think they are protected those of us who choose not to wear a mask should not be forced to do something that we don't believe in it's plain and simple that there is no conclusive data as to the efficiency of face masks i urge all of you at this table please use your common sense thank you at i'm carrie english i'm a fort worth isd parent and teacher have we really sunk so low as a society that people are unwilling to bear even the smallest inconvenience to save children from a potentially fatal disease whose long-term consequences are still completely unknown and which has already killed more americans than the civil war smoking in public was banned because cigarette smoke could fill up the room

024and if your child was in there prolonged exposure over a period of years could increase their odds of developing lung cancer someday if your child is in a classroom with a maskless person with covid the sick person's breath is filling up the room with something that could put your child in the icu in a few days except that there's no room for them because last week there were zero pediatric icu beds left in all of north texas so 49 studies have shown that masks are effective but let's imagine that they're wrong if they're wrong and we wear masks what did we lose if masks are effective when we don't use them what have we lost only our children [Applause] thank you lynn craig followed by alex force hi i'm a parent of two children in

025the district i also teach writing and research to college students i have an acronym that i use to help them evaluate sources for research papers c equals currency is the information recent r equals reliability does the source cite other sources a equals author does the author know what they're talking about and p equals point of view do you get it um is the is it is there an unnecessary bias the court order that came through friday rests in part on the plaintiff's supposed claims that irreparable harm is being done to children in fort worth because of the mass mandate i have looked at some of the research that is cited by people with this view and it doesn't meet currency reliability author and point of view instead i'm going to look at and i'm going

026to have for y'all a few sources that do meet those criteria according to university research standards um first mass use could result in a large reduction in risk of infection second and we concluded that there was no adverse biological effects in fact there was some cognitive benefit to wearing masks third can students wear masks all day pre-k through kinder most of the day they can this is all peer review thank y'all [Applause] alex force will be followed by ernie moran 60 schools didn't show up to work because they were already in covid quarantine some of them met parents and students in person last week at meet the teacher events but quarantine alerts did not go out monday eve did not go out until monday evening why weren't we notified before school began how can we

027trust you if you don't follow your own safety protocols on day one please automate school-wide alerts immediately when quarantines post to the district dashboard don't burden school nurses and principals with notifications when you can do it for them vote for universal indoor masking at least for schools where students are too young to be vaccinated vote for a virtual academy at least for unvaccinated children with underlying health conditions like my daughter follow your calling follow the science and lead the way to safety [Applause] thank you ernie moran will be followed by suzanne as far i'm a fort worth isd teacher appearing before you two days into the school year when most of us would rather be home recuperating but i'm also the parent of an eight-year-old fourth with id student who cannot yet get vaccinated against

028covid so i'm here to ask you to summon the courage to do the right thing whether politically expedient or not when it comes to academic outcomes you trust scholars who research and study when it comes to athletics you trust physios and coaches who have expertise why then would you not trust epidemiologists and pediatricians when it comes to a virus in children's health if governor abbott signed an executive order that the school day needed to be 15 hours long would you throw up your hands and say oh well and have students arrive at 6 a.m and go home at 9 00 pm if the texas education agency said that football helmets were not required were not effective and thus unnecessary for playing would you say well they won't fund us we make the kids wear them

029and tell fort with isd coaches to scrap them why then are you not listening urgently to the dire message coming from our health experts as we sit here right now there are no available staff pediatric icu beds anywhere north texas zero please vote to mandate masks and offer virtual options in our schools immediately until it's no longer being necessary by experts who know rather than politicians who want to be real thank you [Applause] suzanne as far will be followed by shirley freeman the first grader who is deaf she's a child who relies on lip reading and facial expressions i struggled and put up with her wearing a mask and doing virtual learning last year it's not inconvenient it's borderline abuse and probably illegal yes vape least restrictive environment i know there are parents with autoimmune

030compromised kids out there who feel the opposite and look we're all here just trying to do the best for our kids we are y'all talk about equity right now equity means choice parents choosing what is best for their unique individual child there has to be room for people to opt out of masks if we learn anything from a year ago with the back to school issue that it's parents have the right to choose what is best for their child not the district not teachers not other parents it comes down to respecting that right like you had planned to do before the superintendent took matters into his own hands once again thank you shirley freeman wallace bridges followed by byron griffith or brian griffith i'm sorry uh i'm byron by the way so just to be

031clear uh in a lawsuit last week against the fort worth wisd pediatrician dr farella claimed that reported studies do not justify the use of mass to prevent the transmission of i'm here to tell you as a phd in biochemistry that dr pacilla's statement is not an accurate assessment of the scientific studies reported for several reasons dr farcello neglected to state that one of the key papers she cited was retracted by the authors due to several insufficiencies in the way as was performed another of the key studies that she cited in that study the authors freely acknowledged that their study was not sufficiently powered to support a strong conclusion most importantly dr priscilla cherry picked all the reports that were consistent with her statement and ignored the mountain of data available that's inconsistent with her statement

032an accurate assessment is that overall the data supports the use of mask as a mitigation for the spread of covet i support the mass mandate and i provided all this information and the documents to support it to my board member ms martinez and i thank you for my time [Applause] thank you shirley freeman lynette ebera followed by john pilley good evening my name is shirley freeman i'm a mother of three children two of whom attend fort worth highest day as a nurse i've been on the front lines battling covert since the beginning i have watched people die without their loved ones by their sides this virus is devastating we should not have to make a person wear their mask however they are not doing it so this is where it's caused the board needs to

033mandate this so that our children do not be getting sick passing this virus on from one to another i wish that y'all would make everybody wear these masks to school every day unfortunately i have withdrawal my one of my children out of school because the hard masks are not there and all of my kids can be getting this virus i thank you guys thank you lynette ibera john pilly michael shed thank you as you step into executive session to discuss your legal options regarding mass mandates i trust you will make sure your decisions you make are in keeping with your overall mission to provide a quality education to the students of fort worth isd we must focus on students staying on campus focus on students who are underperforming in math focus on students who are

034underperforming and reading and spend less time masking the truth about this low-performing district spend less time making excuses for the mass exodus of students from this district and spend less time making excuses as to why this district continues to be ready to see wherever you stand on mandatory masks or however your discussions in executive session go today your vote should be centered on achieving high expectations for improvement of reading and math scores but you should also be holding this leadership team accountable to meet those high outcomes regardless of how you move forward on these masks will this superintendent and his leadership team be held accountable by this board for the continued failures of this district will these debates over mask be an excuse at the end of the year [Applause] [Music] thank you jenny crossland

035angel martinez good evening board superintendent um i'm here tonight because i started a petition for superintendent scribner to step down he broke the law when governor abbott said no mask mandates and i personally it offends me i have two small children in preschool i'm concerned that the children in this district aren't learning as i mentioned the last time i spoke at a board meeting and instead of addressing that you're addressing something that you legally can't do i also brought the constitution of the united states of america [Applause] it's one of the best documents ever written and i just think it's really important maybe to just read like a line of it uh we the people of the united states in order to form a more perfect union establish justice ensure domestic tranquility provide for the

036common defense promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves [Applause] thank you angel martinez followed by robert baker good evening i'm here tonight because i'm against this illegal mass mandate as we know there is a recent ruling um five to four against the mass mandate and what i have with me here is those official masks that you all advocate for says 98 bacterial filtration efficiency but let's look at the third line right here warning this mess is not a respirator this mass does not eliminate the risk of contracting any disease or infection replaces if damaged or soiled with blood or other bodily fluids so there's other people here that have been making these emotional arguments and everything and these are a gaslighting argument as well thank you [Applause] [Music] robert baker

037will be followed by malik austin that's robert buchan i'm sorry no it's okay it got mr street uh the ninth amendment says the enumeration of the con in the constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people in a april the 14th um according to the uh cook children's center we don't want to talk about that that's too much the joy campaign launched on tuesday with a series of stories on check up newsrooms over the next six weeks joyce stands for just breathe open up you matter the stories will explore how the pandemic and isolation of affected kids the role over the counter medications plays and use suicide attempts social media and the unique challenges faced by minorities including the lgbtq community as how suicide affects parenting

038a record of 43 patients were admitted to cook's children medical center in march after attempting suicide according to hospital system last year cook children's recorded seven suicide deaths marking the first time suicide was the leading cause of trauma and death so the hospital surpassing thank you [Applause] i'm more concerned about the students out of 76104 you know who i'm talking to in 119. look just the superintendent just last friday in san antonio fourth circuit of appeals ruled with the district we need mr lawyer i need you to file the same tro that san antonio did mr abbott has warped the texas 1975 texas disaster mandate that is to help anything to help the public that's what needs to happen and protect the citizens of the community of the state of texas that's just how it

039works hey the court appeals have ruled and we need y'all to file the same thing in these 76104 and 76119 got the highest cases in the county so i asked that you vote the right way and do the right thing and file this injunction against the governor with this tier and place the tro in effect it's already been ruled thank you thank you david fruchet will be followed by bonnie fontana hello local leaders and everyone here is a local leader my name is david lafayette frugae i got my phd from southwestern seminary it's here locally my kids have been in fourth isd for five years i have two children in wheelchairs and fort worth isd is not always the easiest old buildings to get around but we make do my daughter's immuno compromise she needs

040her classmates to wear her mask and i'd like that for just four weeks the next four weeks she's yet to be at the school i'd like our local meter leaders require mass for four weeks and in three weeks reconsider a short extension my daughter needs you to help her stay safe you're our local leaders i don't believe that in fort worth we want big government decisions big mandates coming from washington or from austin local leaders who we see at our events who we see at our parties you all are leaders and what you decide we can go with that four weeks then reconsider stop keeping us out of the loop let's do it thank you [Applause] hi i'm the parent of a second grader at fort worth isd and first i wanted to thank the

041board for mandating mass this school year it was the right thing to do um we all know that masks along with social distancing vaccines and contact tracing works and we know this because we worked so well last year in fact it worked so well that i was able to send my daughter who had been distance learning back to school in person for the spring semester and that was the best thing for her and for her classmates too um so i think we should all be proud of that as a community and i'm here to just ask you to keep fighting to get the mass mandate back in place do everything that you need to do to keep our kids safe thank you thank you elena greer will be followed by elise greer i just want

042to say that i appreciate the impossible position that politics has put the board in but the very most important thing the very most important issue is the health and the lives and secondarily the education of our children these are just a few headlines from other school districts that have not implemented mass mandates in just this last week arkansas mass quarantine offers grim warnings to school systems without mass mandates this state is one of a handful of black school districts for mandating the east of mass within days of reopening hundreds were quarantined 5 000 plus hillsborough county students in tampa florida in quarantine isolation emergency meeting called tomorrow coveted outbreaks in three rural texas communities forced school districts to close their doors covet outbreak forces coast elementary school to close for 14 days classes began last

043week a class in eastern kentucky school district closes due to covet cases talbot county district shuts down within a week of opening due to coven 19. thank you elise greer [Applause] elise greer will be followed by andrea palmer hi i'm elise greer a student here at fwisd last year i wasn't able to go to school and eat lunch with friends i wasn't able to just have fun i couldn't do this because a new disease was spreading throughout the world and killing so so many people i watched as it spread to texas i watched as it as i saw the first case in dallas and i watched as it came here to fort worth i heard i was scared and i wasn't the only one so many people lost their loved ones or their very lives

044and the and the battle is still ongoing masks are not a guarantee but they can at least help us with coven 19 and that's why we need this mask mandate because i want to stay at my high school i want to do so much but i will not be able to do this if i am not safe i don't want to lose any more time and i don't want to forfeit any more time with each other thank you [Applause] thank you so i'm not an attorney i have zero grounds to comment on the legal ins and outs of the current situation the school board is in i am however a physician who has served as an expert witness and i am familiar with the concept of negligence as a mother of two fort worth isd

045students what i would like you to consider is that the potential liability you may incur if a child in fourth isd gets sick due to exposure at school and has to get hospitalized or heaven forbid dies like the healthy 12 year old boy from houston did this week negligence is a failure to use reasonable care resulting in damage or injury to another asking a student to wear a mask in the height of a pandemic with our most transmissible and virulent strain of the virus widely circulating in our community certainly seems like reasonable care to me defying the governor's politically motivated dangerous ban on mass mandates has a clear penalty but what unknown penalty for your negligence to follow clear-cut cdc and aap guidelines are you willing to [Applause] thank you mario rodriguez followed by tiffany

046keach good evening i'd like to thank the fort worth isd all of y'all for the service that you do for us my name is mario rodriguez you probably see me as a brown voice since skin color is so important to you and some of the crowd who think i'm a sellout my brain helps me make decisions not my skin color it's my choice my family's choice crt and masks are distractions i'm asking the school board to get back to the real issue plaguing the fw isd the poor performance an average rated school district has schools that are rated at a d and f level fort worth isd needs to change leadership and relieve the superintendent kids are not we can take care of our kids thank you [Applause] miss keach will be followed by dr

047fred bierbaum sort of throwing my notes away here listening to all this it's so troubling what's going on here um the bad news is ordinary cloth masks don't save lives we're not talking about n95 masks for our kids we're talking about ordinary cloth masks the science is out there you can see it on the cdc website buried underneath the blanket of pro mask messaging mask mandates don't lead to better outcomes governor abbott lifted the mandate in march and despite doomsayers our death rate dropped by more than 90 percent in three months we don't need another mandate it wouldn't be useful and the negative results would harm our community it leads to anger and conflict citizens policing each other making outrageous accusations and treating each other with disrespect on both sides we must be allowed to

048choose if it's that dangerous for kids to be in school then we need to explore other options virtual learning and other options that are available thank you dr bierbaum will be followed by nikki lanza i'm a physician who practices pathology and laboratory medicine at a local hospital here in fort worth i've also served on the infection control prevention committee in my hospital for the past six years i have a sister who's a pediatrician and three children in the fort worth isd two of which are elementary school age i'm very concerned about the current iteration of cova 19. this is not the same virus that we were dealing with just six months ago it's changed it's more transmissible there is a potential that it is more vigilant for children it's potentially more harmful for children and

049that's it and and we're learning more information about this but my sister has attested to this that there is a greater number of children that she's seen that are hospitalized that need ventilators that are requiring more care and they need every day when i go to the hospital the er is filled with patients and we are making room we're adjusting but but resources in a hospital like a balloon and that balloon is about to burst we need to do what we can do as a community to stem the tide of coba 19 for our children and in thank you in an effort for consistency mr bond can you be the sole time keeper you're able to do it right sir okay let's let him do his job go ahead i'm the parent of two fort

050worth isd students too young to get vaccinated their biological father my first husband died in 2018 and while he didn't live long enough to see kovid we did live through seeing him on a ventilator i don't enjoy playing the widow card but if my story can help anyone else avoid the trauma that hospitals illness ventilators and watching your loved ones suffer and die can cause then i will speak out about it no person in this room and especially no child deserves to lose a loved one or their own life especially due to something preventable for nearly four years my children and i have dealt with post-traumatic stress disorder and all of the social and emotional fallouts that come along with that and i don't wish medical trauma or loss of a loved one due to

051a serious illness on anyone even those who disagree about the safety of masks we need masks we need a virtual option for students and we need to protect even those that don't think they need thank you [Applause] jesse henry followed by megan carter jesse henry megan carter i want to thank the superintendent for stepping up last week last friday at the mandate uh giving my a plus on that i was my kids being virtual for the last year and a half i want my kids to be in person i felt good when he came out with the decision last friday he came back they went back on the road and made it took they took the took the mass out i just want to say get either mandated or give the kids option of being

052virtual period thank you [Applause] thank you good evening i'm a doctoral prepared nurse executive and i've been on the front line of this pandemic from the beginning more importantly i am a parent of a middle schooler too young to qualify for vaccination and i had hope last week that he would be kept safe but legal battles have derailed that hope please listen to the 125 pediatricians at cook children's do not risk our children because of four misinformed non-experts we are out of beds for all children who need icu care that means if your child has a traumatic accident tomorrow there's no readily available icu bed for them in all of dfw this is very real the parents who state their concern for their children's psychological health due to masking have never seen a child struggle

053to breathe on a ventilator this is not a debate anymore we can prevent unnecessary harm please save these children and require the masks thank you christopher gallegos followed by christy cantu wilson good evening when the board goes to discuss a course of action in response to ga38 remember these things fort worth isd in the last week has taught our children that if you're scared enough you can pick and choose which laws or regulations or supreme court orders you want to follow you can like superintendent scribner tell the world and i quote that he cannot mandate the wearing of masks one day and the next unilaterally try and mandate them anyways secondly our nation and by extension our state were built to secure individual rights in this case parental rights the very concept of individual rights

054demands that they be protected even when and especially when the consensus of the given day seeks to erode them it is much a right to have your child wear a mask as it is mine as a parent to decline on behalf of my child i'm a father of five i support mass choice parental rights and for what it's worth hand hygiene [Applause] thank you [Applause] hi um i've been in healthcare for over 30 years so i have a little bit of background but um i just want you all to know that we're sympathetic for everybody's fear but we shouldn't let fear control everything we do and everything in our lives masks are not treatment masks are treatment is available for this disease and i don't know that most of the media won't let us know

055about it because it's hidden but there is treatment and i can give you resources i have copies of flyers that shows treatment is available we shouldn't live in fear we should know there's treatment for this disease and when we take action and we let each other have a choice then we can actually empower ourselves to engage and share the treatment options they're real they're available i personally have prescribed the treatments and they're safe effective and some of them are over the counter many of them are so i encourage you all to not think you're more powerful than the governor the texas supreme court and the you the tarrant county district court you're not more powerful ken scribner [Applause] thank you sherry myers tiffany reveal deanna deardorff hello again um i'm a mom and stepmom to

056five children in the fort worth isd district something that we are in short supply of these days is compassion i am asking for your compassion i'm asking for everyone in this room to have a little bit more compassion i have two children who are not able to be vaccinated one of whom has underlying health conditions they were unable to attend their first days of school our three older children have been going to school and coming home these past two days in tears mom i tried to do this at lunch mom i tried to be super careful because they are terrified of bringing something back home i am we are not living in fear just have some compassion you guys have excellent legal attorneys there are legal avenues and i'm begging thank you mary catherine nolan

057norma garcia lopez hello my name is mary catherine nolan i'm a taxpayer and concerned citizen prepared to commit financially to this lawsuit against the school district i am one of over 300 supporters who have come together in the last 24 hours to fight this mandate and our numbers are growing parents can choose to mass their children it's your right i support you in that if masks work those children are protected they're good but what choice do parents have who feel wearing dirty masks all day are not unhealthy harmful to their children's social social and mental well-being where is their protection where is their choice why are you superseding parents rights this morning city council struck down the mass mandate proposal leaving the decision leaving the decision to mask or not to not to mask to

058each individual so why is the school board now acting unilaterally against the gov thank you norma [Music] following norma garcia lopez will be cassandra setzer and meredith bowman good evening i'm norma and i'm not going to tell you anything that you already know about me but i would like to thank the physicians that have come up here to talk about their expertise these people that have been rude to the experts they're pathetic okay i work for a health care system and one of our hospitals is the children's hospitals and you shut up okay okay everybody um okay let's let's just stop for a second norma okay i'm sorry that's one and done over there officer i don't know i will in a minute well i will never understand how grown adults like some of these

059back here don't care about protecting children people have politicized and whine about individual freedom when did a health care crisis become political nothing has been taken away from you but life can be taken away when we fail to protect and prevent harm to others we have lost the sense of respect for humanity people have died people are dying if we can't do the right thing to help others not even the simplest thing to wear a mask to protect [Music] thank you [Applause] [Music] cassandra setzer followed by meredith bowman followed by amanda coleman i have a phd in biomedical sciences and was relieved to hear last week that the board initiated a mass mandate in time to send my kindergartner to her first day of school and then was very afraid from her when it was

060blocked children under 12 like my daughter are ineligible for the vaccine and masks are our best chance of keeping them safe while i understand that many may believe that mass can harm students mental health by having them wear masks having to shut down a class or school because someone tests positive for covid is a far greater risk to their mental health and social and emotional development my kindergartner has told me that her class of 14 students she was usually the only one wearing a mask she is really good about wearing it because she sees me and her dad wear them but that is not enough cloth masks protect other people from you more than you from them we tout stem education and yet we are not willing to listen to science when governor abbott's original

061executive order came down the pivot landscape was entirely different we must adjust to new data so we may keep all of our kids safe thank you [Music] [Applause] meredith bowman followed by amanda coleman good evening i am a fort worth isd parent and i am also a fort worth eyes teacher i would like for you to imagine a classroom full of children in the morning with masks on and at the end of the day wearing the same masks i would like for you to tell me how you think the same masks from the morning are keeping anyone safe from catching any illnesses including mental illnesses throughout the day this is also about emotional care as well i love seeing my students smiles and i know that they love to see my smile i have had

062the best last two days being the first days of school getting to see those children smile it should be a choice it's not the only option that we have thank you thank you amanda i would like to call for the termination of our superintendent he rece his recent action to unilaterally violate not only a parent's right to decide what's best for their children's health but he violated the law by going against the governor's order virtually giving our governor the finger during the recent hearing about the mass mandate when forward isd's unmasked attorney was asked why our superintendent didn't challenge the governor's first mandate requiring masks he said because he liked that one do we really want the captain of our ship to be someone who only follows the laws he likes what kind of a

063message does that send to our children the opposition is vocal fierce and full of malice causing only division and hate in the district to not uphold the law however is to invite this type of chaos to reign what kind of a leader do you want leading the district is superintendent a leader who upholds the law or does he bring division and chaos to the district these are the questions i hope you're asking in light of all that's happening in our thank you [Applause] joe palmer followed by gloria mendoza after listening to the hearing last week i decided to come down here and ask you not to spend valuable limited resources on an unwinnable war the governor's mandate has the force of law if you want to change the law i'm with you however i will

064ask you what the tarrant county judge ask your army of attorneys the families in this district are having to pay for why did you not take legal action before going outside the law dr scribner but i agree with those who are opposed to mandates from the governor you might agree with me that a unitary executive deciding for thirty million people is far removed from democracy but i am also not for one person deciding for eighty thousand i'm asking for a public vote at tonight's meeting to reverse the superintendent's decision to go outside the law it is true that four days ago the court of appeals did side with san antonio but two days ago the supreme court granted a stay a stay of that you may think this is good you may think this is

065heroic but it is against the law it is foolish and it will cost us and you will lose and we will lose thank you [Applause] tsm's elementary called my sister today asking why my nine-year-old niece had not attended school so my sister had to explain to them that my nine-year-old niece has health problems that she has a three-month-old baby that had to live her first two months at cook's children due to a complicated pregnancy our mother has thyroid problems and my sister has diabetes everyone in my household is immunocompromised and i'm sure that's the case for many other families in the district we need a virtual option my sister asked ta sims what safety protocols they were putting in place to ensure not only my niece's safety but the safety of my entire family they

066had no answer for her what would it look like if you called every parent in the district to ask about their fears and concerns and actually listen to them instead of letting one racist clown and the fox news called decide the fate over students and families thank you [Applause] sherry myers followed by arch mayfield given the lack of cooperation here i agree that we do need a virtual option we just don't have the community response to this pandemic that we need there are 1 383 new cases in tarrant county today and texas has requested five mortuary trucks dead people do not have a choice texas attorneys must adhere to rules 4.01 truthfulness and statements and rule 4.04 respect for the rights of third party persons in the traeger lawsuit did all the evidence pertain to

067the delta variant or were we misled with information about a prior variant that was less dangerous the judge expressed his opinion early on making me wonder about our right to impartial justice he let one side speak virtually uninterrupted while frequently interrupting the other side at the end he asked a question to the frisbee attorney but would not let him answer thus i don't feel both sides were allowed to be fully represented thank you arch mayfield followed by brian goolsbee followed by heather goolsbee i'm speaking as the convert concerned husband of a current fort worth isd substitute teacher as all of you know on any given morning during the school year fort worth isd is best desperate for good substitute teachers on the first day of school according to the district dashboard 120 school personnel were

068out with co-ed or code related issues such as quarantine that's beside teacher absences due to other illnesses family emergencies and additional issues that call for substitutes and call they do my wife can stay as busy subbing as her schedule and stamina will allow she would be here tonight except she has to be at arlington hats early tomorrow morning what we are facing in fort worth is about much more than personal responsibility the lack of a strong district-wide mass policy creates inconsistent protocol across the system and worsens an already dangerous situation for the subs who could be at three different campuses on three consecutive days i believe the school board can and must act creatively and decisively in the interest of public health thank you [Applause] hi thank you for hearing us the cdc is recommending

069that all people vaccinated or not wear masks in public indoor settings in areas of high or substantial transmission i believe that the schools count as that i have two juniors at arlington heights high school there is a brand new building that was just opened this year it currently has no air conditioning in it i'm pretty sure that that counts as poor ventilation there's no soap in any of the bathrooms in that new building either there's no social distancing even at three feet discs i'm sorry desks are paired up in many of the classrooms my daughter's in choir and when they have them standing next to each other shoulder to shoulder to sing it's imperative that we all have that all students and staff wear masks and that we have a virtual option thank you for

070your time [Applause] thank you heather goolsbee followed by mindy white followed by aaron carroll good evening i'm a mother of four and i have been a parent in fort worth isd for 20 years you have all the information you need to make a wise and responsible decision please do so being a leader in youth ministry for almost 15 years my heart and soul are with all parents sorry we cannot miss this opportunity not only to protect our children and our community but also teach our children what it looks like to pull together and take care of one another especially the most vulnerable among us i implore you to be the leaders we need make a plan be transparent with us tell us what the plan is that's what we need make good choices i can't

071believe we're here again but i can't help but wonder if we continued with our masking and continued with all the precautions we took before that we wouldn't be here we really have to think about that i also am so ashamed and appalled of the behavior i've seen tonight we need to do better for our children thank you thank you [Applause] mindy white will be followed by aaron carroll good evening per cdc foia freedom of information act response given april 5th 2021 does the cdc have a randomized controlled trial proving that cloth face covering stopped the spread of virus does the cdc have a randomized controlled trial that two mess stopped the spread of virus or covid19 the cdc subject matter experts provided the following information cdc is not aware of any randomized controlled trials that

072show mask or double mask or cloth face coverings are effective against copic 19. they did go on to say that they there is some experimental data about blocking particles so i sent in the springs a question to a fort worth isd administrator i never heard a response i had two questions so in light of the cdc information the freedom of information act could someone share with me the data or the research being used to justify the masking my second question was could someone explain to me thank you [Applause] am i ready to go you're ready to go all right i am the parent of a six-year-old who goes to pembroke elementary and on the second day today i'm already getting an email saying that there's a positive coveted case and a staff member her teacher

073is not wearing a mask people are not wearing masks around these vulnerable children and it is enough they cannot get vaccinated they cannot speak for themselves so we have to speak for them as parents my child wears a mask all day long and has no problems she wants to keep her community safe my mother is going through radiation and chemo i cannot bring this home if this comes home it is the end of the world for my family i am imploring you please protect our children you are the ones that can do it don't listen to us listen to science science is what you need to follow doctors people have told you this is dangerous for our children please do your job and protect them thank you [Applause] thank you barton scott who will be

074followed by alexander montalvo good evening my name is martin scott i'm a fourth isd teacher and i really come tonight in support of miss jackson our board president and uh the main thing i'm really here to say is that you know i don't know a single trustee up here that doesn't care about kids but there should be certain things that are out of bounds and so when you have protests at a drive intended to vaccinate children that should be out of bounds when you go to a trustee's home and protest that should be out of bounds i'm all for everything to protect kids if you need me to teach virtual school i'm telling you i'll put in the hours to do it i'll come in on a saturday to help kids i don't care but

075what i want people to realize is that dr scribner's home should be off limits if you want to speak here great if you want to file a lawsuit and fight for your rights there but the words and actions that we have matter and these kids matter thank you alexander montalvo will be followed by virginia collins thank you superintendent for last week for making the choice that needed to be made to help protect students i'm asking for the board including president toby jackson to follow that lead and let us keep kids safe as much as possible by implementing solutions that will help slow the spread of this delta variant we've heard from experts around the impacts we need you to lead and be bold texas is being forced to react to this covet surge whether we

076like it or not texas has deployed 2500 out of state workers to help overloaded hospitals texas has requested five refrigerated moratory trailers for the federal government in anticipation and influx of deaths three texas school districts closed due to covet spread and even governor abbott is forced to quarantine after testing positive for cobit we need to take the steps to prevent tragedy not react to it please do your thank you virginia collins followed by buddy hartman good evening first of all as for interpreter i was denied okay so um i'm a parent with the forward isd and in the forward two students in the forward isd and i also represent little lag district 21 youth so i am here requesting that the school does mandate the mass mandate um we have situations sort as someone had

077mentioned if we weren't if i was in here smoking a cigarette everybody would be offended if um a situation is another thing is if i didn't have my kids in seat belts i would get a ticket if they were injured or not if i was pulled over we need to we have a fiduciary duty to make sure our children are safe and we need to understand that danger is foreseeable and death and we also need to give parents a choice for virtual option i did request for an interpreter because i have spanish speakers and i did ask for that and i was denied thank you [Applause] buddy hartman and our final speaker after buddy hartman will be brianna guerrero good evening my name is buddy hartman i have a lot of grandchildren in fourth isd

078i have one daughter that teaches in the fourth isd and i don't know that i'm not prepared for this speech but i don't think too many of you are listening very very hard summer play on your telephones and i don't know what difference it's going to make about this decision with masks but i do know i have some studies i want to turn in i have 32 studies that about the ineffectiveness of masks and 47 studies about their problems with wearing them small children wearing masks a lot of bacterial problems but i do want to address dr scribner and his record is atrocious and i'd like to call for his resignation tonight thank you [Applause] president jackson board i'm not going to stand here and trauma dump to let you feel empathy for me and

079my community because i represent district 8. we need a mass mandate this is the bare minimum that we can do if you're not going to offer virtual learning because we know you have the resources the same way you shut down rosemont elementary to make room for rosemont 6th grade i'm pretty sure you can do the same for virtual learning having a space where virtual teachers can come and talk to their students who are fear who fear to send their kids to school like that's the least you can do what does it cost you to be decent human beings to put our kids first that's your motto right put your kids first put our kids first thank you [Applause] thank you [Applause] the time is now 7 19 p.m the date is tuesday august 17 2021

080we will now recess and reconvene for executive session as authorized by chapter 551 of the texas government code under sections 551-07124 and 6. thank you all for being here [Music] in accordance with the open meetings law the board opened the meeting at 6 01 p.m with a quorum present recessed and reconvened open session we adjourned regular session convened executive session adjourned executive session and now reconvened open session at 9 45 p.m with a quorum present we'll move on to number four on the agenda which are action agenda items let's move to action agenda item a that is to consider and approve action to appropriately respond to matters related to litigation discussed in closed session concerning executive order ga38 do i have a motion yes moved by trustee ramos do i have a second second by

081trustee lewis i think i should read the motion first yes that'd be good thank you president jackson um i moved to join the la jolla isd etal and shinitra miles fowler eta etal versus abbott lawsuit in the travis county thank you motion is made by trustee trustee ramos seconded by trustee lewabinos do we have any discussion trustee brickins we'll start with you due to my appointment with the state of texas i will have to abstain from this book thank you anyone else have any discussion trustee ramos i do thank you president jackson i just want to add to the reason for the motion for me it's a nice statement uh my personal beliefs and thoughts is this is my window to be able to express those um it's my belief that if this board would

082have voted on on this uh and you know being in contempt that if we'd have had an opportunity to do that um i would have voted and would have been completely okay to be in contempt our history is absolutely riddled with bad laws and some that in my opinion still stand such as like senate bill 4 where people that look like me can still be stereotyped and profiled i really genuinely appreciate legal counsel um appreciate my colleagues for the dialogue um i also want to state that my belief is that even if the board would have had a chance to vote on this versus the superintendent doing the mass mandate we still would have had a similar outcome and then i want to really genuinely thank dr scribner for your leadership um moving on behalf

083of what i truly believe is your best interest for our children we as a board not only historically but even the current one believes in brave and bold leadership and i want to as a single member trust i want to thank you for having done that for us so those are my thoughts for tonight and i yield the floor back to you president jackson thank you trustee ramos trustee and dar i believe trustee evans is before me or was it me i think you pushed it first okay sorry trusty dora it goes from the bottom up okay it's learning at 9 45. that makes a lot of sense thank you trustee jackson um i too would like to thank dr scribner for doing what he could do within the legal limits of the law to

084protect the students and the staff of fort worth isd as well as the greater community that did take bold leadership and we know i know where you stand on the importance of safety and health in our schools so thank you very much for that there are very few things that i actually hate one of them is masks i hate masks but more than i hate masks i hate sick kids i hate kids missing school because they're not well i hate diseases and germs that they might take back into their home that can compromise the health of their family and therefore compromise the health of our greater community as a parent there are many laws that govern what i can and cannot do far beyond the realm of schools there are laws that determine how i

085can discipline my children how i must transport them in a car whether they are a baby or a toddler or under 13 years of age there are laws that determine that my child must be educated as a parent and as a citizen of texas and of the united states i must follow those laws so the fact that that i'm a parent of my child and i expect to have choice over everything that happens the law does not permit that there are laws i must follow as a parent i have raised two kids i am raising a third child when my children are sick i consult a doctor i don't reach out to a legislature a legislator i don't reach out to a politician i don't go to an auto mechanic and ask them how i

086should treat my child because they are sick i reach out to a doctor because i trust doctors and i recognize that they have 4 8 sometimes 12 or 16 years of education that they have they know more than i know when it comes to keeping my children healthy and safe and growing the way that they should be growing so why as a trustee would i as a parent would i ignore the pleas of the medical community to mandate masks why would our elected officials ignore these same pleas of our medical community i don't know i can't answer that question but i choose to listen to the medical community speaking of the medical community i would like to say thank you a heartfelt thank you it sounds trite they are two simple words you are overworked

087you are underappreciated you are undervalued but i need you to know that i thank you i see you i hear you and i recognize that you are concerned and you have taken an oath to first do no harm i recognize that you have the public health and safety of children at the forefront of what you do every day and thank you for doing that texas is a go big or go home state so i would like to congrat congratulate texas because we are winning and we have the highest number of pediatric coveted cases in the entire united states so we're number one congratulations to texas on that front and finally as a trustee sitting in the seat this is a representative government and if i am representing the people and the families in fort worth

088isd then it would be my duty to support if given the opportunity a mass mandate because for every one email that i received in favor of pro-choice i received 17 emails pleading that we implement a mask mandate let me repeat that for every one email that i received saying no mass mandate please let us choose i received 17 emails pleading for masks so as a representative of district six it would be my duty to support a mask mandate thank you this issue is layered nuanced and difficult it sounds like the decision in the la jolla lawsuit will affect us whether we are plaintiffs or interveners so i'm going to be voting no on this motion i want to steward our resources to focus on what's happening in tarrant county we will most likely have the

089texas supreme court's decision in the la jolla case within three to four weeks those current and ongoing legal proceedings around the state are going to be sorted are going to sort out the issue and while that is happening i ask that administration bring us a plan to offer virtual instruction for our families and students who request it thank you trustee evans trustee ramos yeah thank you and and you know i listened to two of my colleagues so far i'm i can't help but just say that i'm feeling handcuffed right now um i've always said that i didn't necessarily like the politics involved in school board business but this is as some of my closest colleagues would would recognize this is straight paula tricks and when i say it's straight politrics it's that i as a

090single member trustee also i agree with you trustee dar i would absolutely love to have an opportunity to have that a tool at my disposal being that the majority of us are parents and have children in this district we're not politicians now we're engaging in the political process but we're having to paula trick now and we're having to make a decision to join a lawsuit or not which i'm completely in favor of and the resources that are going to be used by our families and our communities i would push back on to say that those families in our community that we know the statistics of low socioeconomic our children of color are undocumented kids that are not going to have those privileges and opportunities those are real lives those are real human beings that we

091are being charged with and i'm not really particularly okay with not having an opportunity to be able to have a say so on that so while i appreciate the dialogue of our colleagues i'm also a big advocate for we don't need artificial harmony not looking for unanimous votes just looking for individual trustees from single member districts that represent parts of our community and we're supposed to represent the values of our community for me as one i'm not confused as to what the values of my community are on this and my final piece to that is i absolutely loved that people in north side diamond hill emailed me this is the first time i've gotten this many emails including people on my block which is pretty powerful because what i'm witnessing is an awakening of people

092in my community that are paying attention to their local politics where also means that they're going to be paying attention to the local elections and that doesn't bother me one bit that actually gets me really really excited so i want to give a shout out to those families in the community that have reached out of all of all the different perspectives on it but the ones that have impacted me the most have been the one from students that have taken the time to email me saying that please take care of us you have the power and the ability to do something to make a decision and i have to go back to them in the community and say i actually didn't have the power and the opportunity to do anything about it because my local

093control my ability to do that has already been stripped thank you trustee ramos trustee roxanne martinez i first want to thank you dr scriptner for your bold leadership and um last weekend enacting that masked mandate i echo what our other trustees have said here tonight for me personally i'm currently appalled that the law is not protecting our children and is prohibiting us from protecting our children but this is not over i know that moving forward the district we will work to do all we can legally to ensure the safety of our children and i know as a trustee i was elected to do what's best for all children in the district i will continue to fight to do that and we'll advocate for our district to do all that we can to protect our children

094and families as many of you know i've been out there in the community trying to help our communities reduce the spread and i know that the situation is dire i'm deeply deeply concerned about what will happen in the coming weeks um make no mistake parents that we need to mask up our children and keep our kids and family safe and i just want you to know i'm not giving up on the ability to mandate mask i would 100 percent support it when we're able to do so and support doing all that we can to keep kids safe thank you trustee martinez trustee quinton phillips thank you president jackson um [Music] you know um trustee trustee door i appreciate your your comments earlier um and i appreciate you talking about what you hate um because it

095definitely helped me to figure out what i hate and i hate that we've gotten here i hate that we haven't politicized a public health crisis with people's lives in danger i hate that um wearing them wearing a mask is not 100 effective against getting coping 19. hand sanitizers tell you that they're 95 98 effective the vaccine when they wrote them out said the efficacy of particular ones or from 80 something percent to 95 percent there is no 100 percent any of it social distancing is not 100 effective standing behind plexiglas is not 100 effective but all of these are tools coming together to lessen the likelihood of a child going to an icu it doesn't mean that anybody's not going to get it's not meaning that if you were a mask all of a sudden

096you're safe and cold but you have nothing to worry about but how we got to a point where it's political whether or not we feel like we're going to do everything within our power to keep a child safe at school and that's where we have gotten to you the bad guy you're the good guy depending on what side that you're falling on this when isn't the side just the fact that this is a public health crisis and people are dying that has gotten so lost in this in in all i'm trying to do and i know i make it i know to make an eye statement but i know i speak for my colleagues on the board and say all we try to do is keep kids safe that's what we're trying to do when

097we're making these decisions what's best for our young people in schools i am sending two sons into these buildings i am sending nieces and nephews into these buildings across the district i am sending neighbors and cousins and friends into these districts and i promise them and i still promise them that i will do everything to fight for their safety everything to fight for their education that's why um thank you dr scrimnal for taking leadership and saying you know what forwards isd we're going to mandate mass that's what you said and in my estimation whether i'm right or wrong or whatever that makes me look like politically i feel like that was the best thing to keep people safe not just even the young people these educators that are growing in this field and every day

098or not robots they are husbands they are wives they are sons and daughters they are mothers and fathers and uncles they are community members we are not sending robots into buildings every day so it behooves us to do everything possible to keep these people safe because they entrusted that to us when they say i liked you and we did that and now the legal process wants to tell us we can't do that to keep people safe so hell yeah i'm one i'm voting to join a lawsuit i'll do whatever i got to do in any way i can do it to make sure that the folks know employees students community members i care about your humanity i want you alive i don't care about all this other stuff it's not political for me not in

099the least bit covert has hit my family in ways that i can't even imagine family friends my brother my spouse everything it's been hidden in my family and yet i'm just gonna say oh well just go into the building we'll be okay we'll see what happens that's not cool that's not cool with me it's not about a friend you know anybody else is right it's about implementing what's best for everyone that's all i've been trying to do i know so many of my colleagues is all you've been trying to do and i hate trustee dog along with you that this is where we are now so whatever lawsuit we gotta join join whatever measure we gotta put in place do it because ultimately i want these human beings to be able to go home to

100their families and not affect their households and to be able to live lives i want us young people to be able to go to university and to get technical trades and to make a life for themselves and if they getting sick in our buildings because we're not doing our job to do everything we can to keep them safe that is on that is on us as a society not let alone just us not intending here that's on us as a society that we can't get it through our minds that this is a public health crisis and we are talking about human beings thank you for the opportunity president jackson are you thank you trustee phillips trustee darr i apologize sorry i apologize for not mentioning this when i first made my comments um because uh

101i agree with trustee phillips we have got to do everything we can and use all of the tools that are afforded us to keep kids safe the courts have stripped away some important tools that this governing body has to use therefore i would like to request a report on virtual learning for the august 24th board meeting which is one week from today please thank you christina thank you president jackson i also support this effort to give or distribute every tool available to protect our kids my kid few people know that early this year i contracted call with 19 as it spread out through family members a few in my family became sick and i was hit hard and no one knows this but i spent 11 days in the hospital with hours away from being

102incubated my oxygen levels improve enough that my they postponed the order for uh intubation i made a small task difficult and i will find myself short of breathe after wishing for a toothbrush and performing a small everyday task within a few weeks i was negative for the virus so i know the series of this illness and masking in crowded classrooms is simply common sense if it keeps one person from the experience i and my family endure early this year it's a world war ii so i that's why i would like to see you as well as possible to you on this fight thank you trust us trustee phillips yeah i'm sorry thank you very much for trusting the webinars particularly that transparency in your life man i appreciate those words and um i just want

103to also just add in much to trustee martinez's sentiments you know legally we've been told we cannot mandate mask so i will use the phraseology i strongly encourage young people in my community family members please put your mask on i'm strongly encouraging you please tell your young people about social distancing please tell them to sanitize please tell them to wash their hands frequently please employees you will not face any retaliation if you don't not decide to wear a mask because we cannot mandate i want to make sure my words are clear but employees it would make me feel so great inside if you will put a mask on i would feel very good about that if you would choose to do so because i know our families in our community would feel really good about

104sending their kids to school where people were choosing to do so thank you president jackson thank you trustee brookins we all know that in person learning is the best way for our students to learn and i know that there are a lot of parents out there that are afraid to send their students to school just know that we will be doing everything that we can legally possible to make sure we are doing what we can to make our campuses a safe learning environment and and that includes revisiting the first thing and i know that's uh it's been a really hot topic with a lot of our parents because they're they're really scared about sending their kids to school but um i think we have a consensus on that with the whole board that this is

105something that we really need to do because you know whether they send them or not we want to make sure that they're still learning thank you protecting and educated kids in all respects has remained my focus and the focus of this board not politics the fort worth isd board of education has remained focused on making the best decisions possible to safeguard our employees parents and children the company has disrupted every aspect of education in our district and i want to thank our employees because you're still making it happen for our kids just when we believed that we had an effective plan to return to normalcy the more transmissible delta variant has arrived with lambda right on its heels and it's ripped through communities some communities in east fort worth where i'm blessed to represent have

106a vaccine hesitancy rate of 24 percent that's where we can do work let's get people vaccinated our district administration decided based upon the best available science the advice of the centers for disease control the american academy of pediatric physicians and that of our local physicians even those that are members of tarrant county medical society to enact a mass mandate on our campuses the board of education last week supported that decision some individuals opposed to this decision sought and received a temporary restraining order in a tarrant county district court late on last friday the friday before we began school the following monday this court put on hold the original decision by the administration to enact a mass mandate for our schools immediately a thousand opinions and suggestion flowed from concerned parents and community members our next

107actions had to be guided by legal counsel not by raw emotion however well intentioned i requested that our considerable legal resources staff attorneys and outside counsel begin to formulate options and strategies for our administration and for this board of education i requested a conference call with attorneys once they had reviewed our legal position that conference call meeting between me the fort worth isd team led by dr scribner and the board attorneys was scheduled for the following day at midday on saturday earlier that day i attended a previously scheduled annual school supply distribution and free coven 19 vaccine event that i'd helped organize with non-profits and community stakeholders in the heart of southeast fort worth participants were somewhat surprised when a group of vehicles drove by the event honking and yelling about the need for fort

108worth isd board to enact a mass mandate despite this minor scene the event was successful at getting more folks to receive their covet vaccines where i will remind you that over 24 percent of the community does not want to be vaccinated at this time whether that's for fear or other reasons we also were successful at giving children school supplies where we know there are opportunity gaps and supply gaps where kids can't get school supplies once the event was over i went home for my conference call with legal counsel on the mass mandate issue now before a tarrant county district court in the middle of my conference call the same protesters arrived in front of my home where they placed signs of stuffed animals on my yard this protest at my home was unsettling to my

109family and pets the irony was of course that this protest in favor of a mass mandate interrupted the very conference call addressing our legal options regarding a mass mandate to help protect each of our students our employees and their families and i might remind you that this district when you look at how much impact we have it's about a third of this community of course i and all of my colleagues appreciate the concerns expressed by these protesters and of the many parents educators and district staff regarding the need to follow the best advice of our medical professionals regarding masks and other common sense protective measures we're also mindful of the effect of our decisions on the mental wellness of each individual involved on the advice of legal counsel we move to plan tonight's special meeting

110where we've learned the tools are not readily available but this board has worked together tonight to determine what tools we have at our fingertips we will use them tonight i want to thank the many people who have offered their heartfelt opinions on this issue certainly is one that arouses passions and deep concerns and that's okay because it's about our children rest assured however i and i believe this board will continue to make careful and deliberate decisions decisions that are in the best interest of the health and safety of our students staff and teachers we'll put threats and politics aside and exercise our best judgment to do what is right for our children our employees their parents and every taxpayer that supports us thank you for allowing me to share what led up this evening and

111on that we will move to voting motions on the floor from trustee ramos second by trustee luebinos do you want to reread the motion trustee ramos just for clarity or are we okay yes let me pull it up from legal counsel you're good so it was i moved to join the la jolla isd and shinitro miles fowler versus abbott lawsuit in travis county trustees please move to voting and the most passes with six yes one abstain and two no's and on that we'll adjourn [Music] [Applause] [Music] you