ABOVE: Katie Woods, a parent of a Switzerland of Ohio Local School District student, speaks against the district’s mask mandate during Thursday’s board of education meeting

WOODSFIELD — Parents and residents voiced their opinions about the Switzerland of Ohio Local School District’s mask mandate during Thursday’s board of education meeting.

Eight people spoke out about the district’s mandate; most voiced their opposition to the mandate, which was implemented last month due to a rise in COVID-19 cases among staff and students.

Katie Woods, a parent of two students in the district, said there are two petitions floating around the schools — one in favor of the masks and the other against.

“The results of these polls are as follows: pro mask 163 signatures, pro parents choose 295 signatures. … Anti-mandate beats pro-tyranny by nearly double. We don’t want masks, they don’t work,” she said.

Woods said she doesn’t care about people donning masks.

“I care about the healthy development of this beautiful generation of children, and when their faces are covered from seeing one another it breeds fear and social anxiety,” she said.

Woods said she would remove her daughter from the district if the mandate continues.

Another parent who spoke against the mandate was Christopher Workman, who has two children at Skyview Elementary School. He said his children are being “harmed” by the mandate. He said his 13-year-old autistic son has issues with concentration and focusing.

“Once masking started he has frequent complaints of headaches, inability to focus because the only thing he can think about is his breathing and when he can take it off. He struggles with communication and misinterprets often what others are feeling. We have worked with him to look at others when they speak for facial cues, not just the words they use. … He often asks, ‘Are you angry’ or ‘Are you mad at me,’ because he misinterprets the words that you use. This has increased greatly with the masking,” he said.

Dana Reeser, a parent of four, said she now homeschools her children and spoke to parents about doing the same if the mandate bothers them. She said if enough parents pulled their students due to the mandate, the action would speak for itself.

While many spoke against the mandate, two people in attendance spoke in favor of it. Marlena Hart, a parent and home health worker, said the mandate should remain so long as the health department deems it necessary. She said masks protect individuals and others around them.

“I just want our kids safe, that’s all I want. My kids aren’t suffering from this. I have two kids in this district and one grandson that was unfortunately forced to be homeschooled because his little brother has three heart defects and he can’t catch COVID. So there are other circumstances other than oppressive and tyrannical government, there are actually kids out here who would not survive this pandemic if they got it,” she said.

Superintendent Phil Ackerman said the number of cases has decreased since implementing the mask mandate; however, he noted that he was not insinuating the decrease in cases is completely due to staff and students donning the masks.

“I think it contributed to us in terms of being able to have in-person, in-school education, which is the goal,” he said.

For the past nine days, the district has had 1 percent or less of its students test positive for the virus. He said there have been between 15 and 19 cases total during that time frame.

“I think the numbers are there, and moving forward we could go back to masks being optional. Masks will be required on the school buses, that’s a federal mandate,” he said. “… If we go back to masks being a choice,I would like for the district to monitor it closely.”

After some discussion between board members, it was decided to make masks optional beginning Monday. The decision was unanimous.

In other matters, board member Beverly Anderson submitted a letter of resignation, effective immediately. She was absent from the meeting. Board President Ron Winkler read the letter in which she stated she was resigning for “personal reasons.”