Governor Cox, Stop Endangering Our Students
Protecting students should take priority over protecting elected office
On July 4, Governor Spencer Cox appeared on CBS’ Face the Nation to discuss skyrocketing cases of the Delta Variant in Utah. When asked about the strong partisan divide facing the nation over COVID, Gov. Cox bemoaned how unfortunate it was that “politics is becoming religion in our country. [I]t’s caused us to make bad decisions [and]…it’s deeply troubling.”
Cox, a Republican, has a solid track record of facing divisive social issues with grace and aplomb, further contrasting him from other governors in his party. In the wake of the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, while serving as Lieutenant Governor, Cox made unequivocally clear his pro-LGBTQ position, apologizing for his past lack of support for the community and directed a portion of his speech at the “straight community”, saying, “How did you feel when you heard that 49 people had been gunned down by a self-proclaimed terrorist? That’s the easy question. Here is the hard one: Did that feeling change when you found out the shooting was at a gay bar at 2 a.m. in the morning? If that feeling changed, then we are doing something wrong”. More recently, Cox refused to sign Utah HB 302, a bill targeting young transgender athletes, specifically trans-girls (though he said he does see “both sides” of this issue). Cox’s foreign policy is also surprisingly progressive for the GOP. After the fall of Kabul to the Taliban last month, Cox penned an open letter to President Biden offering to resettle “individuals and families” fleeing Afghanistan, citing Utah’s history of providing refuge for the prosecuted. At present, Cox has given neither a timeframe nor the number of refugees he’d accept, but it’s the thought that counts, I suppose.
In any case, Gov. Cox has acted thoughtfully in his treatment of and statements on hot-button issues during his first term. But he may have hit a snag. On Thursday, Cox's administration made a filing in the 3rd District court in regard to a lawsuit filed by a dozen Salt Lake City parents. These parents are suing over a ban forbidding school districts to make their own mask mandates, effectively banning mask mandates as well. Cox asked a county judge in the filing to shut the case down, writing in the filing that, “this case is about who is empowered, in our constitutional system, to determine mask policy for schools during a pandemic, and whether those who are authorized to set that policy followed Utah’s Constitution and statutes.”
While that’s a great point to be explored (I don’t necessarily want school districts to make up their own health policies under their own supervision either), Cox incorrectly analyzes the stakes. The danger here is not that school districts will wield too much institutional power and run roughshod over our students’ freedoms. The danger is that, in a state that has minimized the hazards of COVID and which has no mask mandates whatsoever and has a state congress apparently uninterested in correcting that, disallowing schools to make such mandates is putting students at risk, both medically and educationally. Because while there is the provision that any student that feels uncomfortable having their face sneezed in can attend classes remotely, the point that has been reiterated ad nauseum by many of Cox’s partymates was that we needed to put an end to remote learning and get all children back to learning in-person. So, for students who have underlying health conditions or a learning disability that makes remote learning nigh-impossible, their options are a. feel unsafe at school, or b. receive an unequal education at home. Cox has shied away from this issue before, stating that, while he may make a change to the policies through legislation or executive action, the matter is simply too politicized at the moment. (One could argue that wading into these muddy waters now to squash a lawsuit would just further politicize the situation, but I’m not the governor, after all.)
The fact is, masks are effective at slowing transmission of the coronavirus and while it may be politically treacherous, it’s scientifically sound. Many students are too young to be eligible for a COVID vaccine. And while COVID is generally not as severe in younger people, the risks of them transmitting it to more venerable people in their families and communities are very much present. Without taking steps to mitigate this risk, we risk turning our schools into disease vectors and petri dishes when we have the resources and precedent to avoid such an outcome. The only risk outside of Facebook memes about kids trading facemasks at school would be the moderate discomfort of wearing a mask all day for the students, and presumably the more political or conspiratorial parent base being scandalized by the sight of masked children. In other words, it comes down ultimately to an issue of the existential safety of one group versus the un-comfortability of another. And while Governor Cox has been vocally for the side of safety for the LGBTQ community and Afghan refugees, it seems that tanks runs dry when it comes to Utah’s students. Politicizing health issues can indeed lead to bad decisions being made.
You can contact Gov. Cox at his office by mail at 350 N. State Street, Suite 200, P.O. Box 142220, Salt Lake City, UT 84114-2220, by phone at (801) 538-1000, or toll-free at (800) 705-2464