Whitehall-Coplay School Board, at the Aug. 9 meeting, approved the school district’s revised 2021 ARP/ESSER Health and Safety Plan, effective Aug. 10, which allows for optional masking for students and staff when classes begin Aug. 30.

Voting for the plan were Wayne Grim, William Fonzone Sr., Eileen Abruzzi, Patty Gaugler, Nichole Hartman, George Makhoul, Joseph Shields and George Williams. Tina Koren was opposed.

During the public participation portion of the meeting, eight community members spoke about the impending return to school and COVID-19. Parents and district employees voiced their opinions on the heated issues of masks, social distancing and contact tracing. Several spoke of the negative effects the 2020-21 school year had on their children.

Seven participants were against masks, social distancing and contract tracing, with one in favor.

Alison Ruta, a Whitehall-Coplay School District parent and organizer of Freedom for Choice of the Lehigh Valley, said, “If we keep forcing masking, social distancing and contact tracing, we may as well call the whole school year off. I will not subject my children to another year.”

Jesse Bucchin, a Whitehall High School English teacher, said, “As a teacher who’s had a front-row seat to the effect this virus has had on our schools and students, I wish to express my opposition to continuing the harmful measures of masking, social distancing and contact tracing. At this point, the mental and educational harm far outweighs the risks of contracting COVID for children.”

Bucchin called the decisions being made a “pivotal moment” in education.

“The masking of our children has many harmful and serious consequences. It interferes with students’ psychosocial development, their language acquisition. It inhibits breathing and poses sanitation problems, all of which remain under-researched by the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention],” Bucchin said. “In addition, masks communicate to our children a sense of underlying fear that their world is unsafe.”

Bucchin continued, discussing other effects she saw during the past academic year.

“We have record numbers of failures, kids who couldn’t concentrate at home, whose attendance sank into nothingness, who were too depressed to participate meaningfully in school. Suicides and depression have increased exponentially,” Bucchin said.

LoriAnn Fehnel, a parent of two WCSD children, spoke in favor of masks, stating her household had been greatly affected by contracting COVID-19. She said her daughter is scared to return to school because masks are not mandatory.

A brief argument ensued between Fehnel and members of the audience against masks in schools, until Grim reminded the audience that another participant was attempting to speak.

Whitehall resident Eric Schultz, an internal medicine physician assistant, said, “The CDC’s own studies show that masks are not effective at preventing the spread of COVID-19, but yet we continue to participate in this theater of safety because we’re frightened.”

Schultz said his son was excited to return to his summer day care program until he realized he would have to wear a mask again.

“I vow I will never put my child in a mask again just because adults are frightened,” Schultz said.

WCSD Superintendent Dr. Robert Steckel said, “This evening, the board approved a revised health and safety plan that reflects the needs of the district. It reflects the current transmission rates within the district and the greater Whitehall-Coplay community.”

Steckel credited feedback from the community and collaboration from teachers, support staff, the board and administrators for helping create the plan.

“This plan right now reflects the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic within the WCSD, and as things evolve, we will continue to monitor and track that status. And if we have to revise the plan, we will do that, but we’re going to do what we think is best for our students on a daily basis,” Steckel said.

The approved health and safety plan, along with other information pertaining to the virus, can be viewed on the WCSD website, whitehallcoplay.org.

Committee meetings on finance/personnel, education/student activities and operations/transportation will be held 4 p.m. Aug. 23 and Sept. 27.

The next school board meeting takes place 7 p.m. Sept. 13.