Emails reveal contempt by MoCo health dept for nonpublic schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a poorly written email minimizing the risks of covid. It about minimizing community spread and not just about deaths and hospitizlatiosn and we don't know those numbers as most schools did not have weekly testing and its impossible to guess how it may have spread within the community. Gayles was right to keep schools virtual.

The overwhelming evidence from every single reputable organization, including the CDC, says otherwise, but you be you. People like you still refuse to believe the countless published studies. COVID anxiety is the problem here.

[Anonymous]

What I find most perplexing is he still refuses to admit he was wrong at all, despite, well, every respected health, science and education group eventually saying otherwise.

I don't send my kids to private school but that's really an arrogant, dismissive way to talk about citizens as a public servant. It's just classless and discounts their concerns about their children and the effects of long term distance learning and isolation. No Chief Public Health Officer should talk about people just trying to watch out for their kids like that.

I don't know how there can be trust and confidence in him after this--he is given enormous power with how much the council defers him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gayles should step down or be fired immediately! He was wrong in his actions and in the unintelligent and inappropriate emails. Private schools opened and educated their students just fine. Not public schools - and this is his problem. He has no idea how to do his job and these email revelations should be the nail in his coffin. He is terrible at his job, divisive, and prejudiced. Time to Go!

He's not going to be "fired" and will not step down. You don't like his emails. Oh well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gayles should step down or be fired immediately! He was wrong in his actions and in the unintelligent and inappropriate emails. Private schools opened and educated their students just fine. Not public schools - and this is his problem. He has no idea how to do his job and these email revelations should be the nail in his coffin. He is terrible at his job, divisive, and prejudiced. Time to Go!

He's not going to be "fired" and will not step down. You don't like his emails. Oh well.

I’m not the PP, but — his emails demonstrated a total and complete disregard for constituents’ valid concerns about the criteria he was using to make decisions about whether their children could access in-person education. He also requested that private schools make plans for safely reopening and then proceeded to ignore the plans and try to institute a blanket closure.

[Anonymous]

There wasn't any spread in moco privates, so he was wrong. Ours tested every week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here are the parts of the article that quote emails:


“The privileged class of the county is showing their behinds,” health officer Travis Gayles of Montgomery County, Maryland, wrote on Aug. 1, dismissing objections from parents, teachers, and principals upset at his blanket closure of all nonpublic schools. ...

A local orthodontist married to a public school teacher emailed Gayles Saturday afternoon, Aug. 1, with a request.

“I ask that your department of health visit Bullis," a private school in the county seeking to reopen. "Bullis has exceeded my expectations for the safety of my precious youngest child. ... At the very least could you please provide the specific criteria which you would need to see achieved in MoCo and the necessary protocols in the schools in order to provide the critical and essential in person learning.” Gayles forwarded the message to colleagues, commenting only, “The arrogance…”

Tiffany Ward, the Chief Equity Officer of the county, replied, “SMDH, totally unsurprised by this." Ward then invoked the local private school Holton Arms. "Want to let you know that Holton alums who are in the medical field are singing your praises and saying you made the right decision. Not sure what current parents are saying. But folks need to know they can’t buy their way out of the needed pandemic precautions!”

“Absolute arrogance and privilege,” added Deputy Health Officer James Bridgers to the email chain. “Imagine what you would do if your child was exposed? You mitigate risks by being overly cautious.” ...

On Saturday night, Aug. 1, Shantee Jackson, a specialist at the county’s Department of Health and Human Services, emailed colleagues a story from CNN about Gayles’s order.

“Thanks…but why are on e-mail on a Saturday night lol,” Gayles replied a minute later.

“It has been a long day and the privileged class of the county is showing their behinds as my grandmother would say," Gayles wrote. "We will continue to press ahead and do the work to keep our folks safe.”

I don't see anything wrong and untruthful from the emails. The privileged class was truly showing their behinds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here are the parts of the article that quote emails:


“The privileged class of the county is showing their behinds,” health officer Travis Gayles of Montgomery County, Maryland, wrote on Aug. 1, dismissing objections from parents, teachers, and principals upset at his blanket closure of all nonpublic schools. ...

A local orthodontist married to a public school teacher emailed Gayles Saturday afternoon, Aug. 1, with a request.

“I ask that your department of health visit Bullis," a private school in the county seeking to reopen. "Bullis has exceeded my expectations for the safety of my precious youngest child. ... At the very least could you please provide the specific criteria which you would need to see achieved in MoCo and the necessary protocols in the schools in order to provide the critical and essential in person learning.” Gayles forwarded the message to colleagues, commenting only, “The arrogance…”

Tiffany Ward, the Chief Equity Officer of the county, replied, “SMDH, totally unsurprised by this." Ward then invoked the local private school Holton Arms. "Want to let you know that Holton alums who are in the medical field are singing your praises and saying you made the right decision. Not sure what current parents are saying. But folks need to know they can’t buy their way out of the needed pandemic precautions!”

“Absolute arrogance and privilege,” added Deputy Health Officer James Bridgers to the email chain. “Imagine what you would do if your child was exposed? You mitigate risks by being overly cautious.” ...

On Saturday night, Aug. 1, Shantee Jackson, a specialist at the county’s Department of Health and Human Services, emailed colleagues a story from CNN about Gayles’s order.

“Thanks…but why are on e-mail on a Saturday night lol,” Gayles replied a minute later.

“It has been a long day and the privileged class of the county is showing their behinds as my grandmother would say," Gayles wrote. "We will continue to press ahead and do the work to keep our folks safe.”

I don't see anything wrong and untruthful from the emails. The privileged class was truly showing their behinds.

Ah yes, because when Hogan forced Gayles to let private schools reopen, we saw rampant spread among these reckless, irresponsible schools.

Except wait ... we didn’t.

[Anonymous]

Everybody's an effin expert in hindsight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everybody's an effin expert in hindsight.

Have you just joined this earth? Everyone was screaming at him then; that’s why he didn’t get away with his blanket closure.

[Anonymous]

It was political. That was when Trump was saying he wanted schools to open, and the Democrats stomped their feet and insisted they couldn’t. I’m a lifelong Democrat, but many went around the bend on this one. My kids go to a catholic school that’s been open all year, with not one case of in-school transmission. Gayles’ stand was about politics, that’s it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everybody's an effin expert in hindsight.

Yep. This.

Though his emails were pretty blunt and not written for public consumption they reflected fact. Folks think that because they have money they deserve special privileges. Keeping the community safe was the priority. Did he put in more restrictions than necessary? Perhaps, but he was doing what he could at the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gayles should step down or be fired immediately! He was wrong in his actions and in the unintelligent and inappropriate emails. Private schools opened and educated their students just fine. Not public schools - and this is his problem. He has no idea how to do his job and these email revelations should be the nail in his coffin. He is terrible at his job, divisive, and prejudiced. Time to Go!

He's not going to be "fired" and will not step down. You don't like his emails. Oh well.

I’m not the PP, but — his emails demonstrated a total and complete disregard for constituents’ valid concerns about the criteria he was using to make decisions about whether their children could access in-person education. He also requested that private schools make plans for safely reopening and then proceeded to ignore the plans and try to institute a blanket closure.

You mean a select few constituents who, because they have money, think they should get whatever they want. Hence, arrogance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everybody's an effin expert in hindsight.

Yep. This.

Though his emails were pretty blunt and not written for public consumption they reflected fact. Folks think that because they have money they deserve special privileges. Keeping the community safe was the priority. Did he put in more restrictions than necessary? Perhaps, but he was doing what he could at the time.

You seem to have very selective memory. He was unsuccessful in enforcing the blanket closure. Hogan forced him to let private schools open. Many did. There was minimal transmission, which Gayles later admitted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gayles should step down or be fired immediately! He was wrong in his actions and in the unintelligent and inappropriate emails. Private schools opened and educated their students just fine. Not public schools - and this is his problem. He has no idea how to do his job and these email revelations should be the nail in his coffin. He is terrible at his job, divisive, and prejudiced. Time to Go!

He's not going to be "fired" and will not step down. You don't like his emails. Oh well.

I’m not the PP, but — his emails demonstrated a total and complete disregard for constituents’ valid concerns about the criteria he was using to make decisions about whether their children could access in-person education. He also requested that private schools make plans for safely reopening and then proceeded to ignore the plans and try to institute a blanket closure.

You mean a select few constituents who, because they have money, think they should get whatever they want. Hence, arrogance.

If you define “whatever they want” as what has been backed by experts throughout nearly this entire pandemic (aka that schools can open safely, with certain precautions) then sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gayles should step down or be fired immediately! He was wrong in his actions and in the unintelligent and inappropriate emails. Private schools opened and educated their students just fine. Not public schools - and this is his problem. He has no idea how to do his job and these email revelations should be the nail in his coffin. He is terrible at his job, divisive, and prejudiced. Time to Go!

He's not going to be "fired" and will not step down. You don't like his emails. Oh well.

I’m not the PP, but — his emails demonstrated a total and complete disregard for constituents’ valid concerns about the criteria he was using to make decisions about whether their children could access in-person education. He also requested that private schools make plans for safely reopening and then proceeded to ignore the plans and try to institute a blanket closure.

You mean a select few constituents who, because they have money, think they should get whatever they want. Hence, arrogance.

Many of the schools that opened are parochial schools that run on shoestring budgets and have large numbers of families getting financial aid. It’s disingenuous to say that people who wanted their schools open all came from positions of wealth and privilege.