Tioga School District Backtracks On Refusing Mask Mandate.

I fought the law and the law won.

That song was a hit for the Bobby Fuller Four in 1966, and it was the first thing that came to mind when I read that the Tioga School Board was reversing it's position to not follow the mask mandate issued by Governor Burgum on Friday November 13th.

KX News was following the story when Tioga Public Schools held a special school board meeting on Monday November 16th, when they decided to make wearing masks a recommendation and not a mandate. In fitting with today's "unusual times", the motion to change to a recommendation came from a most unusual source.

 A school board member who has COVID and is isolating at home and is a physician’s assistant at Tioga Community Hospital made the motion to make masks a recommendation and not a requirement.

Mark Schmidt, president of the Toga School Board knew the Governor was probably going to give him a call.  But he didn't seem to concerned.

“I’m not. I’m expecting to, but no. I’m not worried about it,”

But instead it was a call to the principal's office.

The school board voted on Friday, Nov. 20, to reverse its position after state Superintendent Kirsten Baesler reached out to the district and said it could lose state funding and the district, particularly school board members, could be held liable.

Well, that's different then isn't it? With the district facing potential fines and loss of funding, it was time to reverse course and join the herd.  Worth a shot I guess. But the Tioga school district wasn't alone in getting called to the principal's office over the late night November 13th proclamation from the governor.

Doug Burgum got called to the principal's office of public opinion over his initial suspension of all winter sports. He reversed course as well, and had to write 500 times on the chalkboard- "I will not mess with sports parents".

Stay safe y'all.