Concerned citizens seek mask mandate support from Logan council

Representing the ad hoc Concerned Coalition of Cache County, retired nurse Mary DaSilva addressed members of the Logan City Council on Sept. 7 seeking their support for a mask mandate for children in city public schools.

LOGAN – Despite state law to the contrary, an ad hoc group of local residents are urging the members of the Logan City Council to call for a mask mandate for youngsters in city schools.

“In your leadership positions, you are tasked with tremendous responsibility for protecting your constituents,” said former legislative candidate Mary DaSilva, while delivering a petition with nearly 400 signatures to city council members on Sept. 7. “We depend on your leadership to do what is right … by prioritizing the health and safety (of schoolchildren).”

DaSilva addressed the council members from a position of some expertise, as a retired registered nurse with 27 years of experience in the surveillance of communicable diseases.

She also spoke as the representative of the Concerned Coalition of Cache County (CCCC), a group of non-partisan residents of Cache County who are concerned about COVID-19 management in local schools.

“We ask you,” DaSilva told council members, “to support mandatory masking for in-person school attendance in accordance with guidance from Center for Disease Control, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Utah State Board of Health and the Utah Board of Education.“

Although obviously well-intended, complying with the CCCC petition could have the potential to ignite a turf war between the Logan City Council and the Cache County Council.

In May, the Utah Legislature passed a measure that barred public schools and universities from unilaterally implementing mask mandates.

Under that statute, local health officials can still respond to coronavirus outbreaks in schools with mask orders provided that county council members approve that action.

In mid-August, the director of the Bear River Health District, Jordan D. Mathis, polled the opinions of the members of the Cache County regarding the possibility of imposing a countywide mask mandate in response to surging COVID-19 infection rates in northern Utah.

The members of the county council were unanimously opposed to that idea.

Although members of the Logan City Council accepted the CCCC petition at their most recent meeting, they also acknowledged that their hands are tied with regard to mask mandates.

“I think that most people are aware of the current legislative mandate that limits our ability to do anything without coordination with the school district and the health department,” Mayor Holly Daines explained.

“I wish we had more power,” council member Jeannie Simmonds added, “but we don’t.”

As a concerned mother, Katie Lee Koven argued at the Sept. 7 meeting that both the superintendent of local schools and the Logan School Board would like a mask mandate for the city’s young, unvaccinated children.

DaSilva said that group includes most youngsters under 18 and virtually all children under 12.

“Your voices are important,” Koven reminded the members of the Logan City Council in a Facebook post on Sept. 8. “We need proactive leadership.

“Please come together … and tell the County Council – specifically Barbara Tidwell, Karl Ward and Paul Borup, who are our Logan representatives – what Logan school leaders want. And tell Jordan Mathis too.”

The Concerned Coalition of Cache County (CCCC) is part of a grassroots movement dedicated to advocating for science-based policy recommendations in the battle against the coronavirus. Its members contend that extreme voices are dominating policy discussions during the ongoing pandemic.

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12 Comments

  • Struggling Mom September 10, 2021 at 4:16 pm Reply

    Why do you need a mask mandate? If you want to wear and the mask protects you so well, wear one. If you want a vaccine and it protects you, take it. If you want to, you can. I’m a veteran and I believe in freedom, if you want either to wear a mask or get a shot that’s your choice, no one is stopping you. My problem is with masks and vaccines, if you don’t want them that’s your right as well. Stop trying to force things on people. Men and women died for freedom, stop trying to take freedoms away. The more freedom we get taken is going to turn into a freedomless country.

    • KA September 11, 2021 at 7:48 am Reply

      Calm down, Karen. You haven’t lost any constitutionally protected rights. Not one.

      • Struggling Mom September 12, 2021 at 2:04 pm Reply

        I guess I’m the first indigenous, Native American Karen, right? Lol your comment is laughable.

      • Struggling Mom September 12, 2021 at 3:03 pm Reply

        Also KA just to give you some education, mask mandates are a violation of constitutional freedoms. Please read the constitution and don’t assume that Native American people like myself don’t cherish our freedoms of this beautiful country. But your too busy virtue signaling.

  • Blayne September 11, 2021 at 9:46 pm Reply

    Totally agree. The irony of people who want to mandate masks … apparently they believe masks only work if everyone wears one.

  • Joseph Smith September 13, 2021 at 2:03 pm Reply

    I agree, it’s their freedom! Don’t make them wear masks or get shots. Hahaha. Let the hillbillies die. Let the believers that “god will save them” or “that it’s fake news” rot. Natural order. The mentally challenged sheep aren’t mentally fit enough to live in the jungle. Sayonara you silly monkeys! God saves! My thoughts and prayers for the victims. Lol.

    • Fed up September 13, 2021 at 5:51 pm Reply

      The problem is that hospitals are full up with people sick with covid. So much that others can’t get even non-covid related medical attention they need in a timely manner.

      If people too stubborn to take ANY precautions are costing others who are taking precautions their life, what sort of violation of rights is that and who’s fault is it there?

      People not taking any precautions are in fact dying. But they don’t seem to have the courtesy to die quietly and swiftly enough in the privacy of their own homes.

      Wear a mask, get vaccinated, or just get out of the gene pool…

      • Blayne September 14, 2021 at 10:58 am Reply

        A year ago we had no vaccine. Today, over 200 million Americans are vaccinated. However, today, daily cases are up 300% over a year ago. Why?

        • K September 14, 2021 at 4:52 pm Reply

          Your answer Blayne from a medical prospective is the vaccine has tons of break through cases. And people know that this vaccine isn’t protection because coronaviruses have been around a long time. There are so many different strains of coronaviruses that you can’t possibly make a vaccine for COVID-19 which is a mutating coronavirus. Just like the flu vaccine can’t protect you from all types of flu. Mass vaccination was done which caused the strain to have mutations. The vaccine didn’t help, it hurt. People like the commenters, Joseph Smith and Fed Up are too busy being mean and living a sad life making hurtful comments to actually educate themselves. I find it funny that people blast others for the same things they shout from the rooftops, my body my choice. Also if a person gets 1 dose of the vax, the hospital is putting them down as non vax when they get C19. The hospitals also are reporting non C19 as C19. I know my dad didn’t have C19 died of Parkinsons and they marked it as C19.

          • Fed up September 14, 2021 at 7:39 pm

            Being mean is a recent development. Y’all scare me.

  • Fed up September 14, 2021 at 7:33 pm Reply

    Roughly 179 million Americans are FULLY vaccinated out of the estimate of 333 million according to the cdc. That’s around 54% which is far from any sort of herd immunity, and even herd immunity takes time to trickle off.

    The cases are out of control, and the WILD majority of those cases are the half of the population refusing to mask up or get vaccinated. That half is currently breaking our hospital systems because of sheer stubbornness which is preventing others from receiving health care.

    And don’t forget, the longer this virus is allowed to thrive, the more chances it will have to keep mutating. Bottom line is that we can’t just wish this will go away without losing many more people to preventable covid deaths.

    If you have verified facts that say otherwise, please cite them.

  • K September 17, 2021 at 5:32 pm Reply

    It’s not our job to educate you, you must educate yourself. What your comment is full of are non facts. You couldn’t be farther from the truth.

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