We Are Homeschooler’s Again!
During the school year of 2020, mask mandates were imposed in my children's school. School grades 3rd and up were required to wear a mask. I have two daughters, and due to their age difference, one could go to school unmasked, the other daughter would be forced to wear a mask to attend school in person. I refused to put a mask on my child, so we began virtual schooling. Although her grades did not suffer, she experienced loneliness and frustration for not going to school in person.
In an email to Superintendent Jason Fountain, I began asking questions about the upcoming school year in June of 2021. I informed him that state and federal laws were broken last school year when masks, which are approved only for Emergency Use Authorization, were mandated. Anyone who did not have a doctor's note was not allowed on campus.
On July 8, this statement was issued via text message:
"Parents, we would like to provide a few updates regarding the upcoming school year. As things stand today, masks will NOT be required but will be optional for students and staff. We will continue to enhance our cleaning protocols and encourage frequent hand washing. We are excited to progress toward a more normal opening of the school year. Please check our district website and Facebook page for in-person orientation sessions being held the first week of August. Thank you! "
The Governor announced the new mask mandates for all K-12 students during his press conference on August 2. A group of parents immediately began calling and sending emails requesting to add the impending mask mandates to the upcoming school board meeting's agenda for public comment. Our emails and phone calls were not acknowledged.
This text message was received on Friday, August 6, right before 5:00 pm:
"Parents,
As you are aware, the Governor issued a mask mandate for all K-12 students on August 2. Throughout the summer, our plan had been to strongly recommend the wearing of masks. With the Executive Order, however, masks are now required for all students...What's most important is that we are able to have in-person school.
Some parents have asked to speak at the school board meeting in the CHS Theater on Monday night. Our school system is obligated to follow the Governor's orders, and those orders are not subject to revision by the local school board. Because of this, the mask mandate will not be on the Monday, August 9 board meeting agenda for further action, nor will public discussion regarding the mask mandate be admissible at that time. You can contact your school board member...
...We are here to change lives - to build the future of Central and equip our children to grow up and live the American Dream....
Thank you,
Jason Fountain"
I immediately emailed Jason Fountain and the school board members copies of the Governor's Mask Order with section 3 highlighted, the Attorney General's Religious and Philosophical mask exemptions, and a letter written by Health Freedom Louisiana, including information about several laws being broken. I got no response from anyone.
My husband also sent an email asking Jason Fountain to be a leader instead of following orders from above and leave the choice of masking to parents.
I called one of our school board members, Roxanne Atkinson, to share my concerns and frustrations and ask her to please allow parents to speak at the school board meeting. She told me that the decision is out of their hands and that we should start contacting the BESE board because they had called a special meeting on August 18 to discuss how Covid guidelines should be handled in the school districts.
A large group of (unmasked) parents attended the school board meeting on Monday, August 9, at 6:00 pm. At the beginning of the meeting, the board announced that they were going to allow 30 minutes at the end of the meeting for public comment surrounding the mask issue even though it was not on the agenda. I gave school board members and the superintendent copies of the Governor's mask order along with the letter written by Health Freedom Louisiana spelling out which laws were being broken by the mandates.
When it was my turn to speak, I reiterated that the Central Community School System was breaking state and federal law and trampling parental rights by making masks mandatory. I quoted sections of the Governor's order. I planned to ask why private schools offered parents non-medical exemptions and liability waivers, but public schools were not. However, my testimony was cut short because of the "3-minute rule" created specifically for that meeting. My husband had to come up to the podium to finish speaking for me when I was asked to be seated.
On the evening of August 10, I gave an interview to WAFB describing what happened at the school board meeting and explaining our concerns as parents.
We heard nothing more from the superintendent or the school board until Wednesday, August 11 at 4:44 pm. A mass text was sent out to parents with this message:
"Parents, we are so excited to welcome your students back to our campuses on Thursday and Friday. You can access our safety protocols document HERE. Also, please be aware that masks are required for students to enter the building. We look forward to an amazing first day back at school!"
I emailed Jason Fountain once again, showing him that there are exceptions listed in the Governor's mask order and that a doctor's note was not necessary but an added requirement. I also informed him that several private schools around the state offered parents philosophical and religious exemptions and liability waivers. I asked him to consider doing the same for parents in his district. I then received the following email:
"Mrs. Sherlin,
If students do not have a mask tomorrow, they will not be allowed to go to class. I have instructed principals not to engage in discussions of mask exemptions tomorrow. If a parent would like to present one, principals will accept it but not verify it at that time.
We are very excited to welcome our 4,700 students to campus tomorrow, and principals simply will not have time to work on mask exemptions before school begins.
The only exemption that we will accept is a medical exemption verified by a doctor. Once the principal receives an exemption form, they will send it to the central office to be confirmed.
Once the doctor verifies the medical exemption and recommends a suitable substitute, the child will be allowed in the classroom.
We are very excited to begin the new school year tomorrow.
Thank you,
Jason"
Below is my very angry response to his email and the only time I was ever disrespectful.
"Then I want you to be HONEST with everyone in this district and let them know that YOU are putting added restrictions on the Governor's order by requesting a doctor's note. YOU are making that choice! Your hands are not tied; you're simply a COWARD and refuse to stand up to the trampling of parental rights! I'm disgusted and will need in writing tomorrow that my children are being denied an education and discriminated against for not wearing a filthy rag on their faces.
Brittany Sherlin
On Thursday morning, I walked each of my girls to school unmasked, dressed in their uniforms and with their backpacks. I had copies of the philosophical exemption written by Attorney General Jeff Landry, along with a copy of the Governor's mask order with section 3 highlighted. I also brought a copy of the document put out by Health Freedom Louisiana, stating that laws were being broken. The principal at each school took our paperwork and said that she would turn it into the School Board office. I requested something in writing to say that my girls showed up at school and were denied entrance. Both principals said they could not write such a letter and that I would need to get that from the school board office.
We drove to the school board office and made our request. After sitting 20 minutes unmasked, Jason Fountain finally came out to tell me that he could not provide such a letter for me. He said that protocols were in place and that parents knew that if children were not masked, they would not be allowed to enter the building. I again accused him of denying my children a public education, and he stated that he did not deny them, but instead, we were by not putting a mask on them and following the rules. While at the School Board Office, I got a robocall from each school, Central Intermediate and Central Middle, informing me that my girls were marked as absent for the day.
See the news stories that were posted that day, including a letter written by my older daughter, Abigail, HERE. I was also asked to do a telephone interview with FOX 44 about my daughters being denied entry into their schools.
On Friday, August 13, even though I had planned to walk my girls to school again, unmasked, to get an education, I decided against it. Instead, we began looking at options to homeschool if we were denied our philosophical exemptions.
At 2:45 pm, I called the school board office to see if my daughters' exemptions had been approved or denied. I explained that I had given them to each principal on Thursday morning. The secretary told me she would check with the superintendent, Jason Fountain, and get back to me. I received the following email later that afternoon.
"Mrs. Sherlin,
I acknowledge receipt of your request that your children be exempted from the face-covering requirement mandated by Gov. John Bel Edwards in his Proclamation on August 2, 2021.
The CCSS is obligated to comply with the Governor's orders. Students without masks will not be allowed to attend classes unless they have a documented medical excuse from a healthcare provider indicating a medical condition that prevents the wearing of a face-covering...
Thank you,
Jason
As of August 17, we are officially homeschoolers again! We've joined two different co-ops, and our daughter is excited that she can volunteer at the zoo each Friday. Central Community School System doesn't deserve to have my girls and their "mastery" test scores to boost their ratings. They are choosing to stand on the wrong side of history! But make no mistake, our family will be just fine without them!
*A school board committee meeting was held on 8/25 to make a final plea to unmask students and attempt to gain answers. View HERE. It was blatantly apparent that the School Board, School Board Association, and about 50 others in Louisiana are solely following the recommendations of their attorneys Hammonds, Sills, Adkins & Guice.*
