Isn’t it remarkable how often that the old fairy tales and fables from childhood pop up again and again in daily life? And they just keep teaching us things.
One of the best of these, for me, was a series of beloved old stories my father used to tell about a tricky little rabbit who was resourceful, bright and always had a knack for wriggling out of trouble. Much of that trouble was caused by his nemesis, a certain hungry fox who was just as tricky, if not as bright, in concocting methods of catching that rabbit. Somehow, though, the rabbit always avoided the fox’s devices.
But one time, he didn’t.
That was the time when the fox had a bright idea of fashioning a little figure out of sticky tar (don’t ask where he got the tar from). The fox dressed the figure up as a little boy and set it alongside a common path. Then he hid off in the bushes and waited for the rabbit to come by.
Eventually the rabbit did saunter down the lane. He saw the little figure sitting there, not knowing it was made of tar, and wished it a fine day. No response. He greeted it again, this time even louder. Still nothing. Now the rabbit was getting frustrated. Never before had anyone been so arrogant or rude as to ignore his good-will greetings. He continued to holler impatient salutations, which soon turned to angry insults.
Finally, the rabbit lost his cool and landed a strong punch right in the face of this insolent figure. Of course, the fist stuck fast in the tar. He punched with the other hand and got stuck even tighter. Soon he was kicking, punching, rolling and wrestling. But no matter what he did, that tar stuck to him fast. Pretty soon the rabbit was covered in tar and completely immobilized. Now it was easy for the fox to step out of hiding and catch him – which he did.
Of course, that isn’t the end of the story. The rabbit eventually does use his smarts to trick the fox and get free, as always. But the moral to this part of the story was to pick your battles wisely. Think before you start punching. Make sure you know what you are fighting and consider your objectives well. If you don’t, you might get into an awfully sticky situation.
It was just that kind of caution that the members of the Moapa Valley Community Education Advisory Board (MVCEAB) decided to exercise at their most recent meeting held on Aug. 27. Over the past year, the MVCEAB has been at the tip of the spear in the fight to keep Moapa Valley schools open for in class instruction amid the COVID pandemic. Largely those efforts have been successful.
This summer, though, as the state-wide Delta variant spike began to materialize, the board decided to focus its attention on securing a waiver of the Clark County School District (CCSD) mask mandate for local kids. The argument was that infection rates in rural areas have been far below that of Clark County all along. So without a local health crisis, why should rural kids be lumped together with the city dwellers in being required to wear masks?
It was sound logic. So the MVCEAB began lining up for battle as they have done so effectively before. They drafted and sent a formal letter to the Trustees and Superintendent setting forth their argument.
To their surprise, they received an encouraging response. CCSD central administrators actually reached out to MVCEAB Chairwoman Wendy Mulcock to say that they were working on a rural waiver to the mask mandate. Everything appeared to be going so well!
Then an alarming series of recent events caused the MVCEAB members to rethink their approach. A handful of students at Moapa Valley High School recently tested positive for COVID-19. Some had symptoms, some didn’t. But just the positive tests triggered a whole series of health procedures to determine the extent of quarantine that would be necessary at the school. Who would be sent home, and who would stay?
The process was complex and it did not involved local decision-makers, but rather urban public health experts from Southern Nevada Health District (SNHD) and CCSD who had full authority to determine outcomes.
The FIRST question that they asked was “Which classes did the COVID-positive kids attend recently, and where are the seating charts for those classes?” Once that information was obtained and reviewed, the NEXT question was predictable: “Was everyone in the class wearing a mask?”
In classes where everyone was wearing a mask, only the 3-4 kids in seats adjacent to the infected student were quarantined. But in classes where the mask mandate was not being strictly observed, the policy was to automatically quarantine everyone in the class.
Was this fair? Was it right? Did it even make sense? It didn’t matter. That was what the policy dictated, that was what happened.
Suddenly it occurred to members of MVCEAB that the battle they were about to fight might land them in a sticky situation. In fact, winning the battle against the mask mandate might actually lose them the larger war of keeping kids in classrooms at school. So what possible good would it be to secure a rural exception to the mask mandate, if all, or most, of the kids end up being sent home to study in quarantine? It would put us right back where we started.
So the MVCEAB wisely decided to alter its approach. They would still pursue the mask-free objective, just not so aggressively or insistently. In short, they determined to pick their battles more carefully and strategically.
Unfortunately, the general public hasn’t yet caught on to this line of thinking. We hear stories about school kids who stand stubbornly resistant to wearing masks at school. Many kids aren’t bringing masks with them at all anymore. The high schools are issuing hundreds of masks each day to kids who don’t (or won’t) bring their own. But the administrators can’t force the kids to wear them. As soon as the kid rounds the corner, the mask comes off. And when the most egregious of cases become a disciplinary issue, and kids are sent home, their parents come to the Dean’s office to pick them up not wearing a mask themselves and refusing to do so. No wonder!
Admittedly, the mask mandate is highly controversial and imminently debatable. Very few people would say that they enjoy wearing face masks. But there is a wide diversity of opinion on whether a mask offers protection from infection or whether it is just a form of bondage. These arguments are likely to rage on without any resolution for a long time to come. Many people on both sides are ready to fight it out to the death on the topic.
But is that really the right battle to be fighting? As the members of MVCEAB discovered, winning the battle of the mask may come at the price of another year of hybrid or virtual learning for kids, another year without school activities, another year without real sports. Presented those two options as the only choice, I’d guess that most school kids would readily put on the mask in order to stay in school.
The noble act of civil disobedience has long been a revered method of non-violent protest against injustice in this country. Certainly it has its place. But it should be used sparingly, carefully, wisely; with crystal clear objectives and clever strategy.
Otherwise, folks may find that they are just swatting away at a pile of tar and getting themselves ensnared in an awful sticky mess.
