To the editor:

There is a philosophical exercise in the field of ethics known as the ‘trolley problem.’ There are many versions of the ‘trolley problem’, but in simple terms, it states the following:

There is a trolley which runs along a set of tracks in a small village. One day, you find yourself out walking in the village and you see five people tied up to the tracks. You don’t have time to run and untie them because you see a trolley is already bound on its way to strike them dead without immediate intervention. Miraculously, there is a lever right next to you that, if pulled, will switch the trolley to a different set of tracks, saving the five people. You consider pulling it until you notice that on the other set of tracks, there is a couple walking together on them who will surely be struck and killed if you do in fact pull the lever. So the ethical quandary is presented: Do you pull the lever?

If we overlay this exercise with the mask mandates in Barrington we see that the ‘lever has been pulled.’ Children have been forced to wear masks to attend public schools for close to two years in an effort to save the population of individuals who are most at-risk of death if they contract Covid-19.

The risk to the student body, with respect to mask mandates, is merely some of the students’ mental health, and/or some of their parents’. Fortunately, I haven’t heard of Barrington losing any students or teachers in the district to Covid-19, and that’s a wonderful thing. It’s a wonderful trend that everyone would like to see continue, and as long as we can continue to say “we did everything in our power to avoid loss,” then in the event we should ever end up tragically losing a member of the Barrington School System to Covid-19, we can at least find comfort in the knowledge that “we did everything we could to prevent the loss of life.”

Death is a simple metric. Someone is here one moment, and gone the next. It’s something everyone can witness and feel the ripple effect of. The ‘not-so-simple metrics’ are: How many students feel invisible because they are wearing masks? How many students avoid speaking up because they don’t like how the mask muffles their already shaky voices? How many students feel isolated? How many students feel dejected about their future, because they no longer believe that they are in control of their decision making? How many teachers are worried about losing their jobs? How many volunteers are reconsidering if their investment of time and energy in the classroom is worth it? 

These things can be surveyed, but surveys are fallible, and at the end of the day they are not as easily understood as a death in the community. Anyone who watched the recent Barrington School Committee meeting recognizes that metrics are king. If student performance in ELA and math can continue to rise, in spite of masks, then the logic follows: why would we ever remove mask mandates? 

The frustration that has been bubbling surrounding the decision of whether to keep mask mandates or not stems not from the science, or lack thereof, it’s that the decision ultimately falls on only a few members of the community. It’s frustrating, not because these individuals are not highly intelligent and compassionate people, but because their decision silences an entire community that also cares about the students, teachers, administrators, and volunteers in Barrington.

If we didn’t care, we wouldn’t send our children to Barrington public schools. Members of the community are here because we care, and we would like to share the burden of responsibility in determining whether masks should still be required in Barrington Public Schools, to express our care, while we still care.

The resources that make up Barrington Public Schools do not belong to the school committee, or the superintendent, they belong to the community, and as such we should all get an equal say regarding whether masks ought to be mandated or not. A select few pulled the lever because of a pandemic, and we sustained them by complying with mask mandates. 

Fast forward to today; the emergency is over, no one is any longer ‘tied to the tracks’, the lever doesn’t need pulling, and yet these select few still aren’t quite sure what to do. My only suggestion to them is this: listen to the members of the Barrington public school community, the students, teachers, staff, and parents, and let us decide. You’ve carried the burden of this decision for long enough. 

In honor of the excellent Spanish teacher and Chorus teacher BPS lost because it voted not to respect religious or medical exemptions to the vaccine mandate, I suggest those who struggle with wresting control, or are afraid of the future, listen to the song, “Que Séra, Séra,” sung by Doris Day and Frank de Vol.

Whatever will be will be. The future’s not ours to see. 

Benjamin Lane

Barrington