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Public comment split as residents urge and oppose school mask mandates; health workers and parents present competing appeals
Summary
At a packed public-comment period, health-care workers, parents of medically vulnerable children and teachers urged mask mandates or local control for K–12 schools, while many parents and students urged parental choice and protection of individual liberty. Commissioners kept their earlier, advisory guidance in place and logged the testimony.
The commission’s public-comment period drew sustained testimony from more than 50 speakers in-person and on Zoom, centered overwhelmingly on K–12 masking policy and local health guidance.
Speakers urging mask mandates and stronger mitigation included ER nurse Tricia Benderson, who said case counts and hospital strain were rising and asked the commission to ‘‘respond to the changing nature of this virus’’ by allowing mask mandates and other measures in schools. A local physician, Steven Call, identified himself as a rheumatologist treating immunosuppressed patients and said those patients rely on community measures: “Do I send my 6 year…
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