While most families were well into their Christmas holiday, Houston-area school officials were busy calling a special session to force masks on students.

The Royal Independent School District board hosted the last-minute meeting two days after Christmas.

“Why would we mandate something that has been demonstrated to not stop the spread of COVID?” Waller County father Josh Posey asked the board as he quoted multiple scientific studies on the issue.

Posey, who became active in school board meetings in Waller County following his discovery of inappropriate reading materials, also questioned the timing of the board’s decision and discussion.

“We’re halfway through the school year. Why propose this now? And why vote for something that hasn’t worked in the last two years and expect it to be different?”

According to Posey, who checked before the board meeting, Royal ISD only had five active cases of COVID-19 at the time of the meeting.

Royal ISD’s COVID Dashboard shows the district has had 218 total cases of COVID-19 since August. Currently, there is one active case; the individuals in the other 217 cases are listed as recovered.

Posey also testified on the issue of personal freedom.

“Is there an upside to mandating masks and using totalitarian methods to enforce this ridiculous mandate? Why don’t we follow the money and find out?”

During the post-Christmas meeting, the board also discussed a controversial bond proposition that Posey said “has failed three years in a row and doesn’t need to be decided until February.” Community members have continually raised questions of wasteful spending in the $94 million debt package.

One member of the Waller County Patriots, under the pseudonym of Dagny Taggart (a heroine in Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” who stood for truth regardless of social pressure), summarized the board members’ actions:

Petty arguments among board members, a power-hungry president, long-winded monologues from the president, disregard for parliamentary procedure or Robert’s Rules of Order, and odd insults spewed at the public who spoke.

Josh Posey said “it demonstrates how the whole system is infected with progressivism. The same tactics used in Washington are being found in the tiniest of districts. This [is] on the heels of POTUS abandoning federal power to fight the pandemic and pushing it to the states. Omicron is proving to be insignificant regarding death rates, and the CDC is relaxing protocols. Yet, somehow, school districts are doing the opposite, and teachers’ unions are trying to force remote learning. It seems very coincidental.”

In the end, the Royal ISD trustees voted to postpone the mask mandate decision until the January 24 meeting.

Of the seven-member school board, four will be up for re-election in November.

Sydnie Henry

A born and bred Texan, Sydnie serves as the Managing Editor for Texas Scorecard. She graduated from Patrick Henry College with a B.A. in Government and is utilizing her research and writing skills to spread truth to Texans.

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