By Ryan Gunterman
TheStatehouseFile.com
NEW ALBANY — My mom is the model Indiana educator.
Elaine Murphy spent her entire career working for one school corporation, serving as a teacher, counselor and administrator for more than three decades. Her unfettered devotion to the children of my hometown earned her heaps of praise as well as awards from local and state organizations. She continued to advocate for other people’s children following her retirement by winning a school board seat and serving as the group’s president since 2019.
But the public still took turns calling her a lying, anti-American tyrant.
That’s what I witnessed for several hours during the Aug. 9 meeting of the New Albany-Floyd County school board — my mother being verbally bludgeoned by the very same parents whose children have benefited from her selflessness.
Her crime?
Talking about masks.
Not recommending. Not mandating.
Talking.
Sadly, it was all too predictable.
Educators throughout the country are being subjected to the angry, “Don’t Tread On Me” mobs for having the audacity to consider ways to protect everyone’s kids during a pandemic that has so far killed more than 4.3 million.
Of course, the dehumanization of those running our schools is nothing new. Members of this state’s governing party have even advanced their political careers by mocking teachers and their legitimate concerns. But the recent treatment of the individuals to which parents entrust that most-cherished has reached terrifying levels.
Which is what brought me two hours south from Bloomington to my Ohio River hometown.
At the time of the meeting, NA-FC schools had a mask-optional policy in place, despite the fact the county’s health department and CDC both recommend face coverings for students. The district’s superintendent, Dr. Brad Snyder, had recently sent an email to parents noting that the corporation will be taking a color-coded approach for future decisions regarding the topic.
That’s what triggered the local tin-foil-hat crowd. And I wasn’t going to allow my mother to face them alone.
They began lining up outside the corporation’s main office three hours before the meeting and then filed into the room carrying their “patriot” flags and “My Body, My Choice” signs (though I doubt many of those will be seen at the next pro-choice rally). Those few who signed up to speak during the public comments portion of the evening presented the greatest hits of the insurrectionist playlist.
“Masks don’t work.”
“COVID is the flu.”
“We don’t know what’s in the vaccine.”
“This Facebook post I printed off…”
There were even random smatterings about the evils of Critical Race Theory and President Biden stealing ballots. And yet those two, false talking points were just as relevant to the meeting as a mask mandate because none of it was on the agenda.
At no point that night was the NA-FC school board going to decide about kids and facial coverings. The group CAN’T make such a decision because that’s the superintendent’s responsibility, and it has been ever since the pandemic began.
It didn’t matter. What actually happened that night wasn’t even relevant to the self-perceived freedom fighters.
At one point, the meeting had to go into recess due to the excessive screaming and expletives during the final agenda item of the night, which was a discussion concerning the first few days of the school year. After the board members retreated to another room, one of the demonstrators turned to me and asked what had just happened.
“Did they just require masks for everyone?” she asked. I told her they had not, and they weren’t voting on that today.
She didn’t believe me.
We were literally next to each other watching the same events unfold.
And she didn’t believe me.
The board returned to the room after the 10-minute break, completed the remaining task and then adjourned. Within seconds my mother and I had exited a side door and were in my car.
As I navigated an indirect route back to her house, she asked what more she could’ve done.
“I wanted them to have the chance to speak. I believe in the First Amendment,” she pleaded. “I didn’t want to see cops dragging people out in zip ties.”
And there she was. An educator to the core, empathizing with those who had just spent a better part of two hours targeting her with all the hate they could muster.
What a tyrant.
