Gateway School Board adjourns meeting after confrontation among audience members over masks

Gateway School Board members walked off stage before their scheduled meeting Monday night when several people in the audience argued over a mask mandate.

Before the meeting, the crowd was reminded of the state mandate to wear a mask in Pennsylvania school buildings. A few in attendance pushed back, with one woman ignoring pleas for her to follow the mandate. Shouts of freedoms being overlooked were met with a chant of “Escort her out,” directed at the woman refusing to wear a mask.

The meeting was then adjourned after four board members left. It never officially began.

“I was hoping everyone, knowing the mandate is in place, (would know) that you have to have a mask on to go into a school,” board member Rick McIntyre said. “It would be pretty obvious to just wear the mask when you’re in there.”

Board members Mary Beth Cirucci, John Ritter, Robin Mungo, Susan Delaney and Scott Williams remained. Cirucci said she asked if the meeting could continue with the group of five, but Superintendent William Short determined it would not be possible.

“Even though the five of us were hanging around, Dr. Short was like, ‘Yeah, we can’t proceed without them,’ ” Cirucci said. “If there is any threat of people’s safety, if their safety is jeopardized or the audience is aggressive toward one another, it’s not a good situation.”

At one point, a male audience member left his seat and walked toward the woman without a mask.

“The guy in the audience got up and started walking toward her,” said Cirucci, who added she had never experienced a similar board meeting. “What’s he going to do? Physically hurt her or force her to put her mask on? You can’t have community members threatening any kind of violence toward one another.”

The man, who wished to remain anonymous, said he intended to help the woman leave the premises.

“It’s a simple rule, put your mask on. If you can’t do that, step outside,” the man said. “I’ve had relatives that have died from covid. For somebody to sit back and talk about whatever that person was talking about, as far as her rights and everything else, I was just simply going to escort her out. That’s really all I wanted to do.”

The crowd was told the meeting had been adjourned.

“Once things started to get heated and people were leaving their seats, I believe it was (board president Brian Hoppman’s) determination that, for the public safety interests, it was best to just not hold the meeting,” McIntyre said.

“Your school board members have left the building,” Cirucci said to the audience.

The meeting is expected to be rescheduled, Cirucci said. A time and date was not immediately determined. Whether it would be in-person or virtual was also undecided.

Those who wish to watch meetings without wearing a mask were reminded that meetings are available on social media platforms.

“We have a Zoom link available on the website,” McIntyre said. “There is a livestream on YouTube. I believe it’s also broadcast on the local access channel.”

McIntyre said the past month has been the most confrontational of his four years on the board. That partially stems from the possible hiring and implementation of an equity director. The board voted 5-4 at an Aug. 19 meeting against a motion to postpone filling that position until after the November election.

“The last several meetings have been growing contention and hostility,” McIntyre said. “I didn’t expect anything to keep us from conducting business. There’s a lot of tension about multiple subjects — the mask mandate being one of them, the equity director.”