The Ludington Area School District (LASD) Board is set to meet at 6 PM tomorrow (11-15-21) for their regular November meeting and are set to consider a few items following a lost week where school was called off due to 'staff shortages'.  That Monday, when at that time only that day had been called off, I spoke before the school board just before they interviewed and picked the next school superintendent. 

I opined that the staff shortage was largely a product of their own making, in that the arbitrary mask mandate they imposed on staff and students, rather than making it a personal medical choice, led to a lowering of morale for those who came to the scientific conclusion that the masks were doing more harm than good.  One doubts whether the four board members responsible for the mandate based on a bizarre metric of test positivity rate and based contrarily to the local and state health department who adopted no mandate, only a recommendation, would reconsider their school-closing policy.

The week off allowed them to fulfill one of my FOIA requests, however, dealing with inspecting their "non medical mask exemption forms" which was sent to me in a series of 8 emails including about 330 forms. Staff and students who wanted to be exempt from wearing masks at LASD schools could fill these out in order to bypass the mandate-- if the form was approved.  But as I was interested in rejected forms too, part of the request was for the rationales LASD used to reject such exemptions.

Surprisingly, none of the 330 requests to be exempted were denied, even though no less than 17 forms contained any basis or explanation for an exemption, nor were there any grading system used to assess denial of a mask exemption request. 

What this effectively means is that there really is no mask mandate in place, as long as you submit the form, despite what the bottom of the form says or implies:

Quite simply, any parent, guardian, emancipated student, or staff member who wants to go without a mask, or have flexibility to choose when and when not to mask up, have the choice to do so just by filling out this form for themselves or their children.  The board's mask mandate is a paper tiger policy, it appears to be threateningly restrictive, but it has no teeth once you take a minute to fill out and sign a form then give it to an administrator's secretary.

The TPR mask mandate passed by Board members, Mike Nagle, Bret Autrey, Stephany Reed, and Steve Carlson is wearing no clothes, so I will be laughing at those four fools at tomorrow night's meeting in the auditorium, as they pass their one microphone around the table among themselves to spread their own contagions while they virtue signal their medical knowledge supremacy by wearing face coverings that do nothing to prevent community spread of viruses.  

I have posted the 330 or so non-medical mask exemption forms at my sister site made for dumping larger files, Ludi-Leaks.  Almost all of the information that would identify a form to a student/staff member have been removed from the one-page records.  Though classified as 'non-medical' exemptions, most of the reasons making the basis for the exemptions actually are medical in nature, including the reason most often gave.  Here's a brief synopsis of the reasons that LASD staff and students gave in order to ask for a mask exemption, and it's popularity in comparison to other reasons.  Many forms gave multiple rationales in forming their basis for exemption:

1)  Difficulty Breathing/Asthma (96):  

2)  Already vaccinated (87): 

3)  Masks negatively affect learning/communication (63):

4)  Limits freedom/flexibility (55):

5)  Mental health/issues (51):

6)  Religious/personal beliefs (44):

7)  Headaches/Dizziness (35):

8)  DHD/CDC not mandating (34):

9)  Stress/Anxiety (31):

10) "Masks don't work!" (30):

11) Not able to focus concentrate (29):

12) Acne/facial irritation (21):  

These twelve classifications are not exhaustive, other reasons given that mustered at least ten votes:  Constitutionality/legality, allergies, already had Covid, masks weaken immunity, overheating issues, glasses fogging, PTSD/ADHD/autism, and 'no reason'.  My personal favorite, though hard to classify:

There are plenty of brief testimonials by staff and parents telling of negative effects of mask wearing over these last two years, medical and not, showing how using a one size mask fits all approach to this policy is not healthy or sane.  

The LASD Board needs to recognize that their policy is a failure rather than ride this failure out through the school year.  They could do so without admitting their three month mistake, by doing what Mason County Central did last month, and go to a system where staff and parents aren't left out of their own (and their children's) medical choices.  After tomorrow, if they haven't figured it out yet, they will be reminded that their existing policy only makes a lot more paperwork-- paperwork that shows their policy is purposeless and puerile.  Even those parents and staff members who want mask mandates will be figuring that out, soon enough.

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I see a survey this morning that 65% of the people surveyed did not require a mask or to be vaccinated to be guest at their Thanks Giving table.  That would mean 35% did. LOL   Did you require your guest or were you required to be vaccinated and  wear a mask this Thanks Giving?

Not a single relative in my family wore a mask. Not even the Trump hating Lefties. I think most of them have seen the light and realize that the Covid hysteria has lost it's shock value. If that survey is accurate, my guess is that the 35% are hard core Democrats.

Everyone knows a crazy couple like that portrayed in your video Willy, but I would note that the 35% is just below the amount of people that identify themselves as progressive liberals.  There's nothing more than a progressive hates than having an honest discussion about current political topics with their non-progressive family and friends, so what better way to keep those folks away than to say the meal you're hosting is mask-only.  

I still don't understand how one would eat a Thanksgiving dinner and socializing while wearing a mask, so one can figure that almost all of the 35% were virtue signaling or afraid that the pollster might come over and arrest them for their crimethink. 

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