As a lifelong member of the Monroeville community, graduate of Gateway High School, parent of three Gateway graduates and grandmother of four potential Gateway graduates, I want to inform our community of the disturbing issue regarding the Gateway school board mask mandate for K-12 students.

During the Aug. 17 school board meeting, numerous parents and members of the community impressively and passionately advocated on behalf of the children by requesting the school directors vote “no” on mandating masks for the 2021-22 school year. The speakers used data, science and common sense in making their cases. One was an ICU critical care nurse. One was a teacher. One was a coach. The overwhelming message was, parents should be the ones to decide if their children should wear masks for nine hours a day. Nearly every person in the audience concurred. My body, my choice. Right?

Wrong! The pleas of the parents fell upon deaf ears in a vote of 5-4 (“Gateway students, staff to start school year with mask requirement”). In my opinion, Susan DeLaney, Scott Gallagher, Brian Goppman, Richard McIntyre and Robin Mungo based their votes on politics, not on science or what is best for the children. They voted to strip Gateway students and parents of their God-given rights and freedoms.

Remember these five names on Election Day in November. They masked our children, thus prohibiting their education.

Christi Orlando Marchi

Monroeville

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