Vancouver resident Sally Snyder discusses her concerns about issues facing parents of children attending Vancouver Public Schools
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are those of the author alone and do not reflect the editorial position of ClarkCountyToday.com
Once again, the Vancouver School Districts’ Board of Directors meeting did not disappoint. I thought parents had rights over their children, not the school board. I thought parents had rights over their children, not the teachers. Apparently, the Vancouver Public School Board thinks differently, as evidenced at the August school board meetings.
At Parents Rights in Education website the full video and audio of the August school board meeting can be viewed in its entirety, along with being on Rumble, where it won’t be censored. The meeting had technical problems, again. Last month, there was no audio and no video for half of my presentation and others, due to new audio equipment and scheduled vacations, so they didn’t have anyone to work the video camera. This month, the audio and video froze, then went completely out in the middle of my presentation, and others, due to internet connectivity problems. Maybe the third time’s a charm and the September meeting will be problem free?
Masks off kids was a hot topic! In May, at the board’s executive meeting they said “it’s just a simple thing. It limits germs from colds. We should wear a mask when we don’t feel that good. It’s too hard to keep track of who is vaccinated or not vaccinated. It’s an all or nothing [for masks]. Preschool teachers will be wearing masks during cold and flu season, even post pandemic.” (What?) Parents were asking themselves, why? Why would the school board require every healthy child who has practically no risk of death or serious side effects from COVID-19 to be forced into wearing a mask again? Where is the scientific evidence that supports the idea that masking kids is healthy? This is about power and control, not science.
When a teacher at the board meeting spoke during public comment and said, “The problem is the parents. Who cares if the masks don’t work.” The crowd of about 90 people were shocked and went into an uproar. Then, as evidenced in the recording, the teacher turned it into a race issue. It is truly sad this is what our public education has become.
The school board passed Resolution 869 last fall, when kids were locked out of going to school. The resolution says systemic racism exists in all of Vancouver Public Schools. “Whereas we realize that structural racism is built into every structure in society as well as the fabric of our schools; we must build anti-racism into the fabric …” What anti-racism lessons will they be teaching? Is this Critical Race Theory hidden under the disguise of equity? The board said there will be an equity policy coming soon, along with evaluation of curriculum using an equity lens. What exactly does that mean? Parents asked and the board responded they do not know yet. They are still working with the equity consultants they contracted with last December for $267,000.
Back in May the school board members also quietly decided they wanted PCR testing in schools this fall as a “convenience.” This is being done like the vaccine clinic partnership the district hid from parents, quietly and under the radar. It wasn’t until the slides were presented at Tuesday’s school board meeting did this start to make sense to parents. Parents have been emailing the school board all summer to ask questions, and the board refuses to answer their constituents. Then parents were told to call their schools. One school assured parents, if a student comes in with breathing issues from wearing a mask they check the students oxygen levels. Another school said they started training “coaches“ last spring to do PCR testing, which are chemical laced nasal swabs that are not approved by the FDA. Aren’t there strict medical protocols regarding this? How can the school board approve this kind of medical care when there is not a practicing physician, whose duty it shall be to decide for the board of directors all questions of sanitation and health affecting the safety and welfare of the public school? Is the school board turning our schools into medical facilities? This is a slippery slope.
The school district can oblige and manage those who want to wear a mask and those who don’t. They just don’t want to. It’s more important to have power and control in this new era of woke school politics. A simple sticker or button would work. Taking mask attendance at the start of class like they take a hot lunch count and do roll calls each morning. Seems an easy solution for choice, for ALL children. The school board has broad discretionary power to determine and adopt written policies, as stated in RCW 28A.320.015. Other school district boards have adopted policies to make masks a choice. The VPS Board of Directors doesn’t want to do what’s right for ALL kids, and do what’s right like responding to their constituents’ questions and concerns. These aren’t Jay Inslee’s kids, the school district’s kids or the teachers’ kids, these are our kids! Parents are the ONLY adult responsible for raising their children. Rise up parents. Get involved before it’s too late and your school has indoctrinated your children with Critical Race Theory and years of mask wearing. It’s already been 17 months and this abuse of masking our children needs to end, now.
We have rockstar teachers and rockstar counselors caught in the middle of a vicious game of ping pong, just like parents. Your VPS school board wants you to think this is normal. Normal for our kids to wear a mask for 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, 180 days a year? Normal for kids to be quarantined again this school year and miss school for 14 days when they are PERFECTLY healthy? Normal for VPS to now have experimental PCR testing inside schools? Normal for kids to be coerced into PCR testing with experimental swabs that kids 4 years old and up are required to administer themselves, with the help of “test observers,” so they can get less quarantine time? All from Jay Inslee’s Learn to Return Playbook. Discriminating who gets an education and who gets quarantined for 14 days? Or who gets back on the sports team and who doesn’t? Normal to demand more and more from our already overloaded amazing teachers?
Some teachers will be recording their lessons for quarantined kids. Why aren’t all lessons required to be recorded for those quarantined? Why is the school board not addressing this? And what are parents going to do when their kids are quarantined for 14 days? Normal to force all teachers to get vaccinated this school year when six months ago they were all heroes and moved to the front of the line to get the jab, if they wanted? Normal for a school district to hide a vaccine clinic partnership from parents at Columbia River and email only students? Normal for Washington Education Association (WEA) union website to tell educators they do not have to reply to parent emails asking questions regarding what is being taught in the classroom? If the union is for the teachers and the teachers are for the union, then who is for the students? Maybe it’s time for cameras in the classroom? Law enforcement has body cameras, doggy daycares have cameras, and all over front porch cameras exist to monitor for packages left on doorsteps. With today’s wokeness, coercion and personal agenda being pushed onto our youth, why have parents not requested these in the classroom?
Contact your local representatives to fight for parents’ educational rights. Why doesn’t funding follow the child for their education? A record number of parents are pulling their children out of the public education system, as was reported in this week’s VPS board meeting.
Even teachers say the masks don’t work, and school board members can’t provide the scientific evidence that masks do work. School is starting in a week and it’s Groundhog Day all over again. When are parents going to rise up to this woke culture? Attend school board meetings! Get involved, and fight for every right of every child before it’s too late! How many more years is it ok to developmentally delay kids’ learning, hiding faces behind a mask in school? How many more years will you watch the devastating social and emotional decline of our youth? After your kid passes out from playing sports due to lack of oxygen from being forced to wear a mask? After your kid commits suicide? It’s happening right here in Clark County schools.
It’s time to resist parents. It’s time for peaceful protests and civil disobedience before our education system is so far gone we will never get it back from a tyrannical governor and a school board that refuses to do what’s right, for every child! Teach your children what civil disobedience means, and model it yourself.
Sally Snyder
Vancouver
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