Melissa “Missy” Bosch, the leader of mask resistance in the Cabot School District has put up quite a struggle (unsuccessful so far) and her efforts led me to make an FOI request for her communications with the district.
They are interesting. Here’s the full record
It’s a window into efforts by the superintendent, Tony Thurman, to answer assertions by an unhappy parent whose own notes weren’t always accurate or necessarily relevant. I suspect many administrators face similar frustrations these days.
For one thing, Thurman disputes her suggestion that the rule was implemented as a condition of receiving federal money. Not true, he said.
Here’s another interesting example of her complaints that reflects misinformation circulating widely. She wrote:
First, yes, people can be vaccinated and still get sick or spread COVID. Thus the recommendations for masks to protect yourself and others from aerosols. Also, the likely reference to Massachusetts is the case of Provincetown. The entire town wasn’t infected after vaccination. It was 74 percent of a study group of 469 who’d tested positive despite vaccinations. What those spreading this story miss (the episode was popular at the infamous Siloam Springs town hall with Governor Hutchinson) is that few of the 74 percent (only five) required hospitalization. What’s more from the Provincetown episode:
The data, detailed in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, helped persuade agency scientists to reverse recommendations on mask-wearing and advise that vaccinated individuals wear masks in indoor public settings in some circumstances.
I asked Bosch by email about the reference to medical data from Little Rock Air Force Base. Her husband, Randy Bosch, not a plaintiff in the suit, is an administrator of the 19th medical group at LRAFB, according to a LinkedIn page.
She replied:
My husband doesn’t share personal medical data, only that which is public information like Covid numbers and who was already vaccinated that got the delta variant.
On Friday, I asked LRAFB about its COVID protocols — masks, vaccinations and other guidance — but haven’t heard back from the public affairs office.
Bosch’s emails emphasize a couple of points about the Cabot policy worth noting. As Thurman himself has indicated, the mask rule is to avoid having to quarantine unmasked students exposed to infected people. It is not exactly an endorsement of masks or a statement about their efficacy. And Bosch notes the district is providing exemptions for “special needs” and “religion.” I’ve yet to get a clear explanation from the district of the guidelines for granting these exemptions. The religious exemption, particularly, seems ripe for abuse. If enough claim it, is there a point in a mask rule?
Bosch has a Gofundme page seeking to raise $10,000 for legal fees. It had raised $4,783 last I checked. Her lawyer, Travis Story, is also suing the Bentonville School District over a mask policy.
Bosch commented on the fund-raising page after the court ruling Friday against her attempt to block the district’s 30-day mask rule:
In this day and age, many schools have come to believe that Parents no longer have the right to maintain the health of their own children and have mandated what will keep them healthy and safe, even if it hurts the children. A group of Cabot parents are not going to allow having their rights as Parents taken away because the school is being threatened by the Department of Education to force kids to wear masks or suffer missing school under quarantine. These parents want freedom to choose what is right for their children and because they were not heard by their school district, they are suing the Cabot Public School System to gain back their freedoms. This Go-Fund-Me is to cover the costs of litigation and additional costs incurred to make sure the next generation of parents do not have to fight to keep their rights as parents.
