PROVO, Utah – Over 100 community members spent Tuesday evening queued outside the Davis School District administration building, hoping to be admitted to a school board meeting to voice their objection to — or support of — masks in schools.
Many who attended were affiliated with the movement See My Smile, a campaign launched by a coalition of conservative groups that advocate for parent choice in schools. Those protesters called on the district to allow parents to write their own mask exemptions, rather than needing a medical professional to sign off.
Due to the limited size of the room and the number of people who showed up to the meeting to receive awards from the school board, only a fraction of attendees were allowed inside the room. To provide everyone a chance to express their thoughts, a district official handed out comment cards to each person in line.
“I don’t think the government or the school board should be involved in parents making health decisions for their children, including vaccines, masks, any COVID testing; that’s not somebody else’s decision,” said one parent, describing what she wrote on her comment card. She works in health care and declined to share her name out of fear of retaliation.
The number of comment cards filled out was not immediately clear, according to the district employee who passed them out. Corinne Johnson, the founder of Utah Parents United — the primary group that formed See My Smile — said all of the 100 or so people in line filled one out.
Inside the school board meeting, cheers and horns honking in support of those rallying outside could be heard. Some members of the group held posters along State Street in Farmington, while others directed their signs toward the windows of the room where the board convened.
Many of the posters included messages like “DSD needs to give parents a choice” and “Kids are not ‘fine’ in masks.” One person who showed up to counter-protest, BreAnna Larson, held a sign that said “Support our school board.”
“I’m here to support the school board and the decisions that they have made to give enough choice to parents, but also to keep the teachers and other students safe in the schools,” said Larson, who is a mother of students in the district and the chair of the Davis County Women’s Caucus. “I support masks. I support the choices they have made.”
Three of the parents who lined up with See My Smile were allowed to offer public comment in the board meeting, with the first one being told by board Chair John Robison to keep her mask on.
One of those speakers was Debbie Mulholland. She has four children who are students in the Davis School District, some of whom have struggled wearing masks all day, she said.
Mulholland’s daughter has had chronic headaches this year. When that daughter returned to school after a week of not having worn a mask over spring break, Mulholland said she “noticed a big difference.” So, she started calling doctors to seek a mask exemption.
“I struggled to help the doctors and our pediatricians office understand that my children were not making up their ailments and that I was not lying as a parent,” she said.
One parent and a teacher spoke at the meeting in favor of the school board so far continuing to require masks and doctor-approved exemptions. A man wearing a See My Smile shirt booed during both of their comments.
“In my 25 years of teaching, this is the first year I have not taken a sick day,” said Yvonne Speckman, a sixth grade teacher at Buffalo Point Elementary School and the president of the Davis Education Association, the district’s teachers union. “I have not had strep, I have not had bronchitis, I have not had a cold. I can only attribute that to the fact that we have been extra cautious as students and teachers in taking care of things and wearing the mask.”
The Davis School District has allowed families to pursue a mask exemption for their students since the beginning of the school year. In order to qualify, a physician must certify that the student has a “physical, medical or mental impairment” that makes it “inadvisable or impractical” for them to wear a mask.
District spokesperson Chris Williams said in April that, at the time, 360 students in the district had been approved for a mask exemption.
Under Utah health order 2021-2, put in place in January, schools are to require masks until June 15. The passage of House Bill 294 ended the statewide mask mandate on April 10, but the legislation said measures in K-12 schools would remain.
This is the second time a group of parents has rallied against the mask requirement and called on the district to allow parents to write their own mask exemptions. Dozens gathered outside the district administration building last month — on the same day the mask mandate lifted statewide, except in schools.
There are currently three school districts in Utah — Kane County, San Juan and Iron County — that allow parents to write their own exemptions. The Davis school board did not take any action Tuesday night.
