I just don't want to pull masks and then there's an explosion of cases and then we're back here at a meeting and it's, 'Why did the school committee pull masks and get all our kids sick?'”

Hannah Ayotte

Please make the right decision here because I can see this getting ugly, and we don't need that in this small town community.”

Christine Oliveira

I can see us gradually releasing ourselves from the mask mandate but I think it will be sort of gradual, and to me this is the kickoff to that process. I see it as a really positive way forward.”

Superintendent Dr. Laurie Dias-Mitchell

Members of the Little Compton School Committee's policy subcommittee got an earful from angry residents Friday evening when they began informal discussions on what to do once the state rescinds its school mask mandates on Friday, March 4.

Parents who logged in to the subcommittee's online meeting at 7 p.m. said they were frustrated, tired, upset and fear any decision to continue a mask mandate in Little Compton beyond the end of the state's mandate will hurt their children's education and social and emotional well-being.

"If someone wants to keep their children masked, by all means," said Christine Oliveira. "But for those of us who are done ... we need to have the choice. Please make the right decision here because I can see this getting ugly, and we don't need that in this small town community."

To start off the meeting, Supt. Laurie Dias-Mitchell relayed information she'd received earlier that day from the state department of health, which recommended that when the virus's community spread is substantial or high — more than 50 cases per 100,000 residents — schools continue to keep a "universal mask mandate."

"We have 196.6 cases per 100,000," she said. "So with all this information I would recommend that we keep the mask mandate and agree to review the data next month."

Hopefully by the end of March, she said, there will be better news to report.

Committee member Hannah Ayotte agreed with the idea of holding off on removing a local mask mandate, saying "I'd like to see how it rolls out in other schools before we make a decision here. We still have a very low vaccination rate among our population and among our students, which is very troubling to me."

But callers quickly took those state figures to task.

Though the community spread number may sit at 196.6 statewide, several said, that is much higher than the rate of spread in isolated Little Compton and therefore isn't necessarily relevant here.

"As of February 16, 100 individual Rhode Island schools have switched to mask choice," said Stephanie Cavanaugh. "Little Compton has a lower case rate than 83 percent of those schools as of February 6, and our numbers have only improved since then. We should be looking at specifically Little Compton data."

Over the course of the two hour-plus discussion, parents spoke of the troubles their students have had, and the hard work parents have done to keep them engaged and involved in school. One woman spoke of the pain she and her daughter felt when, due to the mask mandate, she was not allowed to attend her daughter's last basketball game before she graduates. Another, a resident who works out of district, spoke of the how difficult it is to teach when students have to constantly be told to keep their masks on. And others said the school committee and administration appear to be out of touch with the district and the residents of Little Compton.

"I could have seen this being enforceable maybe in the very beginning," said Little Compton resident Justin Dionne. "Two years in on this epidemic, the data's in. I'm trying to figure out what you all are so afraid of. What is the danger of a virus that is 99.9915 percent survivable by this age group? What's the fear? What are you afraid of? Can anybody answer that?"

Subcommittee chairwoman Polly Allen said nobody is afraid of anything, but said the district is just attempting to adhere to new recommendations put out by the department of health.

"No one has their minds up," added the superintendent.

"This has been a very difficult decision. We're always looking at data. We're always listening to parents. It is by no means an easy decision and by no means does anyone have their minds made up."

Dias-Mitchell said that in the course of her discussions with people around town, there is a "quiet majority" of people who support the continuation of a local mask mandate beyond the end of the state's mandate early next month.

But few if any parents spoke in favor of continuing the mandate, and Little Compton resident Allison Camara said that's telling.

"If we do have silent parents reaching out (to the superintendent), and they want to keep masks on their children, maybe they can keep masks on their children so the rest of our kids can get on with this and get back to the way they should be learning — unmasked."

Such individual concerns are not uncommon, but Ayotte said that the committee's decision will ultimately be driven by data and an abundance of caution:

"We don't want to risk any kid who's immunocompromised or anything like that getting sick," she said. "It's more about protecting the community than" any one person.

"I can sympathize with a lot of the parents and students that have come on and said they're sick of masks. I'm sick of masks. I just don't want to pull masks and then there's an explosion of cases and then we're back here at a meeting and it's, 'Why did the school committee pull masks and get all our kids sick?' I think the most prudent thing to do is let these other schools go mask optional, see what happens and revisit with the hope of ending masking in April."

Though she acknowledged "mask fatigue," Dias-Mitchell said that despite the reluctance to end the mask mandate when most other districts do, she is encouraged at the progress as the town moves toward that end:

"As an educator I would love for the kids to be unmasked, I would love for the teachers to be unmasked. But ... we definitely need to tie mitigation measures to data. I can see us gradually releasing ourselves from the mask mandate but I think it will be sort of gradual, and to me this is the kickoff to that process. I see it as a really positive way forward."

The policy subcommittee has no authority to vote on recommendations or policy; that is left to the full school committee. The full committee is expected to meet again to discuss the issue prior to the end of the state mask mandate.