The Controversy Around Masks: Redwood students use their voices

At the July 27 board meeting, Visalia Unified School District’s Board of Education decided that masks would be required indoors, and optional outdoors for the 2021-2022 school year. 

The decision sparked conversation in the community. Both parents and students spoke up at the August 10 meeting about many issues, one of them being about the district’s mask requirements.

Many students may not realize, or want to use their voice to speak up at board meetings about concerns they may have. However, Roamie Gailey, ’24 knew she had this voice, and started a petition to make masks optional indoors.

When asked why she started the petition, Gailey stated, “I started the petition because I wanted students, parents, and concerned community members to show the VUSD Board that we no longer want to be forced to wear masks, to make clear to the board and our state that their mandates are unlawful and inhumane.”

According to Gailey, when creating the petition her thinking process was “to really just gather all of [her] thoughts and the facts, of course. [She] just wanted to express to the board how the students felt, and all of the factual reasons behind [their] concerns.”

Gailey wanted to make clear that people knew they had a voice, and inspire them to be confident in using it. In addition, she wanted the board to “listen to their schools, and actually take action to give us our choices,” Gailey explains.

Riley Yagle, ’24 also spoke at the August 10 board meeting. Her, and Gailey are heavy advocates for the movement.

Yagle states, “Roamie and I were at water polo practice, and she was going around having people sign a petition, and it really spoke out to me because she was using her voice and wanting to spread the word that using masks is not okay, especially when we’re outside. I thought it was really interesting, and I wanted to be a part of that.”

The two strongly expressed that they wanted the board to listen to what people had to say, and to take it into account.

“I just wanted to give everyone a voice to express our concerns, because that is what VUSD should be thinking about. Our concerns, not our personal health choices.” Gailey says.

Her main goal was to help the students of VUSD and make sure the district heard their voices, “The truth is no one likes masks- no one, and we have actual concerns about not wearing them,” Gailey expresses.

According to Gailey, the plan was to get as many signatures as possible to make masks optional, not mandatory. As the movement went on, it was more about encouraging people to use their voices to express their concerns.

Yagle says, “Just because we are younger doesn’t mean we don’t know that much, and I feel like we gave people more confidence to speak out.”

She feels that she and Gailey were able to express to the board what students were thinking and feeling about their decisions.

The two felt that the board didn’t completely understand what students were going through, and that speaking up at the meeting helped them to understand more.

Yagle says, “I was pretty nervous because I haven’t really done anything like this, but my thought process was thinking that this was for other people that were wanting to help, but weren’t allowed to go.”

She continues, “I was kind of just like thinking ‘oh, I’m speaking for most students here,’ and that I need to prove what happened online and in-person with the few weeks that we had last year. I had to prove what we went through.”

A few weeks later, the board decided that with the rising COVID-19 cases, that mandating masks both indoors and outdoors would be best.

Yagle says, “To tell the truth, I feel really disappointed. I thought that we might have been able to breathe, and I just feel very bad for the students that don’t like the masks.”

In the end, the girls’ petition didn’t result the way they had hoped, but Yagle thinks they still made an impact.

Yagle states, “I think we made an impact where people feel confident to spread their voices around because I know it can be very difficult for an adult telling you to do something and you not agreeing with it.”

Even though it didn’t go her way, Gailey still has a large amount of support from her community, which she says is “the best feeling ever.”

The petition had over 600 signatures and over 30 comments agreeing with what she had to say.

Gailey states, “People I didn’t know acknowledged me at school saying they liked what I had to say, and it just makes me excited because I do feel that my point of view, which includes many others, is often shut down. We really are a silent majority and we just want mask choice.”

She then adds, “At first I wasn’t sure the feedback I would get, but so far it has been nothing but positivity and that makes me so happy and grateful.”

 “I would like to just thank everyone who has been involved in this and support our campaign, it means more than you could ever know to me.”

Roamie Gailey, ’24

Tags: ayla ozturk, covid-19, gopo, government and politics, masks, petition, rangers, Redwood, redwood high school, redwood rangers, rhs, riley yagle, roamie gailey, visalia ca, vusd, VUSD board