12
Wednesday, August 11, 2021 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
MEETING: Some 30
people showed up
to express opinions
Continued from page 1
five days per week and with
minimal disruptions. With
many children still ineligible
to be vaccinated, masks are
an effective way to help keep
our kids safe in the class-
room, the learning environ-
ment we know serves them
best.=
A brief letter from
Superintendent Curt Scholl
sent out to parents Monday
August 2, following Brown9s
announcement, said, <With
the rise of the Delta vari-
ant, Governor Kate Brown
announced last week that
the mask requirement will
again be required at the start
of this school year. Although
we are not excited about this
requirement, we are grateful
our students will be in school
every day.=
Together these statements
raised the ire of a vocal group
of attendees to the meeting.
Rodney Cooper, a recent
candidate for the school
board who has grandchil-
dren in Sisters schools, spoke
first and asked the board
three questions, includ-
ing how many school-aged
children had died in Oregon
of COVID-19, whether the
Board had read any articles
from pediatricians and child
psychologists about the dan-
gers of wearing masks, and
whether the Board was mak-
ing decisions <out of fear of
this unjust government.=
Amy Larrabee, a mother
of students in the district,
said that Oregon9s <resilience
framework is advisatory (sic)
and not a requirement.= She
quoted from Scholl9s letter,
pointing to the word require-
ment as being misleading.
<You guys have a choice
to make that affects all of
our children 4 their mental
well-being, their physical
well-being, and who they are
as people growing up in our
community.=
She cited a letter from
Crook County9s school dis-
trict addressed to the gov-
ernor, which argued that,
after a summer of serving
over 1,000 students in sum-
mer school programs with
no cases or spread of the
virus, that district was urging
Brown to let local districts
make their own decisions.
Larrabee cautioned the
Board to consider how much
money the district would lose
if families pulled their chil-
dren out of school over the
mask issue, eliciting cheers
and comments of agreement
from the crowd.
<We are the taxpayers
here and we have a choice to
make,= she concluded.
Stephanie Meadows of
Sisters, who said she had
no children in the District,
accused the Board of not
We are elected officials
and we are doing our
doggone best to try to
support the process
of educating kids...
—David Thorsett
performing due diligence.
<What appalls me,= she
said, <is that I gave all of
you board members informa-
tion last year that could be
researched, and those chil-
dren were still masked every
damn day. Do you have any
idea what harm you did every
day they had a mask on? You
have no clue because you
haven9t done any research.
That9s my message. Stop tor-
turing these children. They
are defenseless. Do your
homework.=
Board Member David
Thorsett, who attended the
meeting via Zoom, chal-
lenged the assertion that the
Board did not know what it
was talking about and that
members had not spent time
studying the issue.
Thorsett said, <Once this
dialogue becomes us versus
them and once we start to
throw dirt at each other...I
heard people say we haven9t
done our research and don9t
know what we are talking
about...those of you saying
these things have absolutely
no idea what you are saying.=
He continued, saying, <To
suggest that we are not think-
ing about this and that we are
not involved in this ongoing
discussion is way off base.
We are elected officials and
we are doing our doggone
best to try to support the pro-
cess of educating kids here in
Sisters in the best, safest way
possible, and also a way that
upholds the Constitution and
all the things that have been
discussed tonight. This con-
versation is far from over, but
let9s not dig our heels in so
hard that we can9t continue to
talk. Do not suggest that we
are not doing our very best,
because we are.=
Scott Stuart, a Redmond
resident, spoke at length and
did not pull punches when
sharing his opinion of the
governor.
<First of all Kate Brown
looks at the Constitution like
it is a roll of toilet paper. She
treats statutory law like it9s
garbage. She doesn9t pay
attention to it.=
He claimed that masks
restrict oxygen concentration
levels to dangerous levels that
violate Occupational Safety
and Health Administration
(OSHA) guidelines.
Stuart continued, <I have
to take issue with your letter,
Curt, when you said we got
this new Delta variant. Next
month it will be the Venus
variant or the Mars vari-
ant. This is not going to stop
because we have a governor
who is a despot. She is tyran-
nical and she is an out-of-
control public servant.=
Stuart warned the Board,
<You better pay attention
because you poked mama
bear and her cubs are in
the school district. I look
at everyone in the State...
State agents, media, OSHA,
OLCC, ODE, court sys-
tems&.I look at all these
people who are in these
state agencies and they are
hyenas&.They are mock-
ing us. This isn9t about a
corona variant, it is about
communism.=
He finished with another
warning to the Board, sug-
gesting that they could be
held individually and jointly
liable for gross negligence <if
one of these children gets a
medical injury or a physical
injury (from being forced to
You better pay
attention because you
poked mama bear and
her cubs are in the
school district.
— Scott Stuart
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A gathering of family
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See MEETING on page 13
THE GARDEN ANGEL
Celebration Of A
Life Well Lived!
Elmer (Moe)
Kleinke
wear a mask).
<Do the right thing as a
board, reverse this or you
will have we the people,
on this side of the state of
Oregon, to deal with.=
Ed Owens of Sisters spoke
fervently on all three top-
ics. <These mask mandates
are completely unlawful and
unnecessary and there is no
science. And these masks the
kids wear don9t protect them
from anything. CRT (critical
race theory) does not belong
in the school. You are brain-
washing Marxist ideology
into our children. We started
out tonight with the Pledge
of Allegiance and that is
under threat because of this
Marxist ideology that you
guys are pushing on the kids.
Mathematics has nothing
to do with ethnicity or any-
thing else. It is gender-neu-
tral and it is blind. But you
are all having your teachers
taking classes this summer
like 8Mathematics for Social
Justice.9=
Scholl told The Nugget
that Sisters School District is
boom!
pow!
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