By Jon King / jking@whmi.com


As the delta variant continues to push the COVD-19 positivity rate higher across Michigan and Livingston County, the mask policy in Brighton Area Schools will remain as a recommendation only.

Just before midnight, the Brighton Area Schools Board of Education voted 4-3 to continue the protocol that was set forth this summer in Superintendent Matt Outlaw’s “Return to School” newsletter, in which he said the plan was to make masks optional rather than mandated, as has been recommended by both the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services and the Livingston County Health Department.

The more than five-hour meeting featured nearly three hours of public comment on the issue, with the majority of speakers opposed to a mask mandate. At one point, Board President Roger Myers threatened to have police remove audience members who were continually yelling out responses and interrupting the board as they discussed the issue.

Board Vice President Alicia Reid’s proposal to add an action item to the agenda on whether to mandate masks was approved, as she lamented the divisiveness that had arisen over the issue.“I have to talk to my children twice a day, every day, about why it is we don’t get along with each other anymore. I have to try and explain to them that it didn’t always use to be this way. How did we get here? And I don’t really have a good answer for them. I really want us to come together as a community and at the same time, I respect the fact that I am a lawyer, not a doctor. I’m on this school board because I want to contribute and help make my community a better place, but I’m not a doctor and I’m not willing to step in to substitute my judgment for public health officials.”

However, Trustee Bill Trombley took the opposite tack and said that second-guessing health officials was exactly what he suggested they do. “Why do people always ask when a doctor makes a diagnosis, ‘Maybe you should go get a second opinion?’ because I don’t believe all doctors and everything the first one tells me so you go and get a second opinion." That was met with a round of applause from the audience, after which he added, "I don’t necessarily believe everything the health department is coming out with and I’m not so sure. You can find one opinion that says to do it, you can find another opinion that says not to do it. I’m not so sure that anyone’s opinion is correct.”

Following several hours of public comment, the motion to implement a mask mandate failed, with support coming from Reid, Board Treasurer Angela Krebs, and Trustee Laura Mitchell. Voting against the motion were Myers, Trombley, Trustee John Conely and Secretary Ken Stahl. Stahl, however, earlier stated that he thought the state health department was derelict in its duty by not mandating masks and leaving the issue up to individual districts.

While the mask policy will remain a recommendation and not a requirement, Superintendent Outlaw said that the district would still be providing other mitigation strategies including physical distancing and disinfecting. He also stated that the county health department was planning this week to release a plan that would allow an alternative to quarantining students if a close contact were to test positive.

However, he said that an order issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this year requiring face coverings on public transportation, including school buses, remains in effect. Outlaw said that two separate legal opinions backed up that interpretation.