As mentioned in Part One, an audience of more than 50 people had gathered in the Pagosa Springs Middle School Library on the evening of Tuesday, August 10, to hear — and applaud — speeches delivered a selection of Pagosa’s most outspoken opponents of mask requirements.
Ostensibly, the crowd had appeared to protest against mask-wearing and social distancing in public schools, as Archuleta School District prepares to start the 2021-22 year on September 7. (Pagosa Peak Open School, the District-authorized charter school, opened its doors on August 2.)
The audience members who came to testify apparently arrived with the assumption… that ASD would be requiring masks?
But as we heard from Superintendent Kym LeBlanc-Esparza, prior to the first public comments, the currently-proposed policy would allow students to wear masks — or not wear masks — according to their own family’s choice. Staff would also be free to choose whether to wear masks or not. Less than 30% of Pagosa students over the age of 11 have been vaccinated, we were told, and about 75% of the staff is fully vaccinated.
Dr. Kym made it clear that this rather lenient policy might change, if new, stricter requirements are put in place by CDPHE (Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment) or CDE (Colorado Department of Education). She suggested that any changes would be brought before the School Board for their consideration.
Board president Bruce Dryburgh announced that public comment would be limited to 30 minutes, and asked that speakers avoid repeating ideas and concerns that had already been shared by a previous speaker. As things played out, the Board as a whole decided to allow the testimony to run on for nearly an hour.
The first passionate critic to testify was local activist Wayne Bryant, who read from a prepared speech, reprimanding the District for a number of perceived failures, including allowing students to graduate without having to first memorize the Preamble of the US Constitution, and being “more focused on face masks and social distancing than on education.”
According to Mr. Bryant, publicly-educated children can no longer add, subtract or write. He demanded to know if undeserving children are allowed to advance from one grade to the next “so that we don’t lose government funding?”
“Why are our students’ education being sacrificed in exchange for government revenue streams?… We have become dependent, like an addiction, on money. You will do whatever it takes to continue this revenue stream, even at the expense of our children’s education.”
Mr. Bryant spoke as if he were unaware that public education in America has, since the mid-1800s, been funded almost entirely through by government revenue streams.
Audience member Jimmy Jones reminded the School Board that “we are a nation of laws,” and asserted that “no one can be quarantined without a court order.”
“The constitutional authority to make laws, that apply to all the people, rests only with the legislative branch of the Colorado government. It doesn’t rest with San Juan Basin Health; it doesn’t rest with the Colorado Department of Health, or any other non-legislative agency, issuing mandates and orders…
“From this moment forward, you can’t claim ignorance of the law anymore. I have sent this School Board a public records request… I’m not going to go through what I requested, but if you proceed with forcing mandates, orders, recommendations on our children, in violation of state and federal law, that will evidence willful and knowledgeable criminal intent, and I intend to hold you accountable.”
Relative to what Mr. Jones may believe about the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment’s authority, and in particular, its legal authority to enforce quarantines, here are a couple of brief quotes from the Colorado Revised Statutes:
25-1.5-102. Epidemic and communicable diseases – powers and duties of department
1. The department has, in addition to all other powers and duties imposed upon it by law, the powers and duties provided in this section as follows…
(a) (I) To investigate and control the causes of epidemic and communicable diseases affecting the public health…
(b)(II) Except as otherwise directed by executive order of the governor, the department shall exercise its powers and duties to control epidemic and communicable diseases and protect the public health as set out in this section…
(c) To establish, maintain, and enforce isolation and quarantine, and, in pursuance thereof and for this purpose only, to exercise such physical control over property and the persons of the people within this state as the department may find necessary for the protection of the public health…
My research into the Colorado Revised Statutes suggests that public health departments already have the authority to control an ‘epidemic’ and that those powers can be enhanced through Executive Orders and Public Health Orders issued by the Governor. We can argue about whether COVID-19 is indeed an “epidemic”, but we can’t easily dismiss the fact that Governor Polis has, in fact, issued multiple Executive Orders, as authorized by Colorado law.
Audience member Bethany Jones told the School Board that she has been homeschooling her children, but this year decided to enroll (one, or more?) children in the District schools. As with the numerous other speakers on Tuesday evening, her remarks received enthusiastic applause and cheering from the gathered crowd.
“I believe in the United States of America, and the freedoms that our forefather fought for. I believe that we, the people of the United States, are here to be a shining light, honoring and upholding our freedoms… I believe the parents of Archuleta County are smart, and able to make great individual health decisions for their families…
“We are asking you to trust the parents. And we value liberty. We are here to stand with you, as you follow the laws issued by the legislative branch of our federal government, regardless of what San Juan Basin Health or the CDC recommends…”
My research suggests that San Juan Basin Public Health, as a ‘LPHA’ (Local Public Health Agency) can — according to existing Colorado law — enforce certain rules delineated in an Executive Order issued by the Colorado Governor. Whether SJBPH can legally create its own rules, without prior authorization from an Executive Order? I have no idea.
Things can get complicated and messy, when millions of people, globally, are dying from a newly discovered disease.
Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can’t seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.