The Concerned Parents group, a grassroots organization made up of parents of Carroll County K-12 students, recently received hateful messages on Facebook from a local McDaniel professor.
Seemingly triggered by the group’s stance to maintain optional mask and vaccination policies in public schools, professor Henry Reiff sent a private message to the Concerned Parents Facebook page declaring “You clearly are not concerned about your own health or that of your children…I suggest you move to TX, LA, AL, MS or Florida where you can associate with all your like-minded Trumpers. You’ll get to see plenty of them and maybe even join them in hospitals dying from Covid because they refuse to mask, and of course, not get vaccinated.”
The states referenced by the professor, all republican controlled, vary in terms of their COVID stats, but all trail New Jersey and New York in deaths per million where lockdown policies took place. Florida, which had similar death rates to California, beat out other lockdown states, despite having the largest elderly population in the U.S.
Bryan Thompson, one of the Concerned Parents committee leaders, was shocked by the message. “Most of the messages we receive are from members of the community looking to offer support, so when we received this message, it really stuck out”, said Thompson. “It was quite unsettling to discover this message came from a McDaniel professor. I mean, his bias isn’t surprising, everyone knows that colleges, and now public schools, have become politically biased, but what was surprising was the level of animosity in his message towards us. I can’t imagine Mr. Reiff’s message represents the values of McDaniel College.”
Reiff ended his message offering to debate the group. “If you want to try to refute me, I will be happy to debate you in a public forum. Bring it on.”
When asked if Concerned Parents would take the professor up on his offer, Thompson replied “Our focus will continue to be improving the public schools for our children.”
Full text from McDaniel’s Herny Reiff’s private message is below.
Why aren’t you protesting required school vaccinations (e.g., polio, small pox, measles)? That should be a part of your another political, Trumpist theology. You clearly are not concerned about your own health or that of your children – or anyone else.
I suggest you move to TX, LA, AL, MS, or Florida where you can associate with all your like-minded Trumpers. You’ll get to see plenty of them and maybe even join them in hospitals dying from Covid because they refuse to mask, and of course, not get vaccinated.
What you and the school board demonstrate is that you received a poor education since you do not understand even basic common sense and civil responsibility.
If you want to try to refute me, I will be happy to debate you in a public forum. Bring it on.—–
This is actually a specious argument. We are in a catastrophic health crisis. Donald Trump didn’t care about the FDA, so that’s hardly an excuse for a concerned parent. How many “concerned parents“ have not been vaccinated.
Look, no one wants to wear a mask. I don’t. But I care about others’ health. The refusal to wear masks comes largely from unvaccinated people who are a threat to other unvaccinated people. Again, look at those Republican states where the governors are so anti-masking that they are withholding money from schools that have mask mandates. I thought conservatives don’t like major government over-reach. Do you really want Carroll County to turn into one of those five states where people are dying due to their own intransigence?
As a concerned parent, why do you want to endanger your kids and the students and teachers around them? This should never should have become a political issue. It’s a freaking health crisis. If the worst thing in your day is wearing a mask to protect other people, you’re having a pretty good day. How can you use what is actually a dubious argument to rationalize what is ultimately childish, selfish and petulant behavior.
I’m glad that you have rejected the Deep State vaccine conspiracy and have done the right thing. If you could convince everyone in your organization to get the vaccine, we probably would not need nor recommend masking.
And I am serious about a public debate.
