While Corbin BOE keeps mask mandate, members agree to revisit at each future meeting

The mandate for students to wear masks will remain in place at least through fall break, but the Corbin Board of Education said it would revisit the matter at each board meeting going forward.

At a special called board meeting Friday night during which the board was slated to discuss COVID–19 protocols, five parents of Corbin students were in attendance with several on the agenda to speak to the board.

Melinda Fox brought photos of her son showing a breakout on his face that she said was the result of him wearing the mask throughout the day.

Fox noted that she was treating the breakout with hydrocortisone.

However, she noted that was not the only unintended consequence, noting that he had also begun suffering anexity attacks.

Fox said that other health issues had been diagnosed in children across the country according to a recent study including headaches, difficulty concentrating, drowsiness and fatigue.

Fox said she and other parents/guardians should have the right to make decisions on wearing masks for their children.

“If people want to zip their kids in a spacesuit and ship them to school, I don’t care,” Fox said. “Leave it to the parents.”

“I don’t want to force my kids to wear a mask,” she said.

Tiffany Hotchin, whose niece and nephew attend Corbin, also addressed the board.

Hotchin said her five-year-old nephew recently came out of school wearing a mask that he had for one day.

She brought that mask to show the board, showing the hole that it had in the mouth area.

“He was brought out with the mask on just like that,’ Hotchin noted.

In addition, Hotchin noted that while the students wear the masks during class, they remove them when they are at lunch and sit together at the lunch tables.

“Does COVID take a lunch break?” Hotchin asked.

“I ask that you remove this illconceived rule,” Hotchin said.

Fox asked the board what changed from the beginning of the year when parents were informed that they would be permitted to determine whether their children would wear masks while in school.

Croley explained that soon after the COVID–19 incidence rates spiked, locally, and Gov. Andy Beshear instituted a mask mandate.

While the General Assembly ended the governor’s mandate during the special session with the passage of Senate Bill 1, Croley noted that the number remained high and in speaking with unnamed local pediatricians, the board elected to continue with the mask mandate.

“I love every child of every age,” Croley said. “I am doing the best that I know how from what I have been told.”

Croley noted that the numbers are getting better and, while it is still not great, it is getting better.

With fall break scheduled to begin in less than two weeks, the board agreed to keep the mandate in place and then see if the numbers continue to decrease.

The board members agreed that at each meeting they would revisit the numbers and determine whether the incidence rate has decrease to the point where the mandate may be lifted.