We would like to commend the Board of Health, School Committee and Select Board for voting to implement a mask mandate in all municipal buildings during a contentious and chaotic meeting last week.

The regulation went into effect on Monday, Aug. 23. The order stipulates that people age 3 and older are required to wear masks inside town buildings, including schools. People who violate the mandate can be fined $200 for each violation. The mandate does not apply to people who have certain medical conditions.

Fire Chief/Emergency Management Director Glenn Davis told the standing-room only crowd in the Al Merritt Media and Cultural Center that the town had 67 new cases of COVID-19 over a 28-day period as of Aug. 18.

“Lynnfield has been averaging 20.9 average cases per 14 days,” said Davis. “That is almost double the rate across the entire state of Massachusetts.”

Davis said the state’s positivity rate is 2.69 percent.

“Essex County is slightly higher at 2.99 percent,” said Davis. “Currently in Lynnfield, we are almost double the state average at 4.18 positivity.”

Davis said 76 percent of residents are fully vaccinated and 67 percent of children age 12 and older are fully vaccinated. While the town had almost 70 days of zero COVID-19 cases earlier this summer, Davis noted that the delta variant has been surging across the country, state and town.

“Ninety percent of the new cases we are now seeing is the delta variant,” said Davis. “The delta variant spreads twice as easily from one person to another compared to previous variants.”

The Board of Health was just as concerned about the rising number of novel coronavirus cases in town.

“I am also concerned that we have not reached the peak of this current surge,” said Board of Health Chairman Dr. Rocco Iocco. “This along with the upcoming colder months and school returning puts us in a very vulnerable position.”

Despite the objections of most of the meeting’s attendees, the three boards did the right thing by voting to adopt the mandate.

We also want to express our disappointment in the way that a number of the mask mandate’s opponents behaved during the meeting. A number of opponents sitting in the audience talked among themselves instead of listening to the data Davis and other local officials presented. 

After the three boards voted to implement the mandate, a number of opponents started screaming at board members. Several residents said the three boards were committing “child abuse” and another man said it was time to “vote them out.” A woman in the audience went up to the School Committee after the meeting and started screaming at them.

This type of behavior is unacceptable, but was unfortunately predictable. School board meetings across the country have erupted into chaos over the last several months, as mask opponents have sparred with officials about the public health measure that they claim, despite overwhelming evidence from the medical community, does not work. The latest culture war battle facing America arrived in Lynnfield on Aug. 18.

To be clear, we certainly support dissent when the need arises. A group of then-Lynnfield Middle School eighth-grade girls told the School Committee last June that the district’s dress code policy for all four schools is unfair toward girls and is unequally enforced. The young women raised their issues in a civil, concise and factual manner.

That was absent from last week’s meeting. Hopefully adults will behave better at local meetings going forward. Time will tell.