Southmoreland school board member dons paper bag in protest of mask policy

A retired school psychologist and veteran member of the Southmoreland School Board is gaining notoriety after she attended a meeting Thursday with a paper bag pulled over her head.

A video recording of the meeting on YouTube shows Catherine Fike sitting at one the end of the meeting table with her head covered by the bag. The 80-year-old East Huntingdon resident is an outspoken conservative who told her colleagues she questions the severity of the coronavirus and cannot tolerate a mask. She has served on the board, off and on, for more than a decade.

Reached by phone on Friday, Fike declined to comment. “Thanks for calling,” she said and quickly hung up.

Her unusual appearance at the meeting quickly snared more than 130 comments from local residents on Scottdale Alive, a local Facebook group. A handful of comments were sympathetic, saying Fike had a right to object to the board’s requirement that those attending the meeting wear face masks. Many were outraged. One man said he was saddened to tears to see such a display.

Southmoreland, which encompasses four municipalities in southern Westmoreland and northern Fayette counties, enrolls about 1,900 students in grades K-12. The district fully returned in-person classes late last month. Students and staff are required to wear face masks and comply with social distancing.

Likewise, the video shows board members at Thursday’s meeting all wearing masks and sitting several seats apart around the table.

Board President Michelle Williams said the board suspended in-person meetings last spring, opting to meet via Zoom until last month. Prior to that meeting, the board voted 8-1 to require anyone attending the meetings to wear a mask. The policy stipulated that those failing to comply would be asked to leave.

Fike was the sole dissenting vote.

Williams said Fike then presented the board with a handwritten note saying she could not wear a mask.

“At the March meeting, she came not wearing a mask,” Williams said. “And since our board meetings go over YouTube, people saw it. It became an issue with a lot of people, especially students asking why a board member didn’t a follow a policy that applied to everyone else.”

Williams said the board extended several options to Fike, including offering to provide her with a face shield or providing her with a laptop computer so she could participate in meetings either from home via Zoom or in a room near that boardroom that would be cleaned and set up solely for her.

Instead, mimicking the “Unknown Comic” of Gong Show fame, Fike attended this week’s meeting with a bag over her head.

“Obviously, if you have a medical condition that says you can’t wear a mask, you should be doing things to keep yourself safe,” Williams said. “But we have an awful lot of people who are working hard to make this a safe environment and provide a quality education.

Now we have rising (covid-19) cases in the community and multiple school buildings that are just a day or two from a two-day shutdown. And it’s just awful when you have something like this distracting from the positive things we are trying to do.”