For most, COVID is now a bad memory. The thing about it is, it occupied our lives for the better part of three years. Some lost friends and family. Others lost their jobs and livelihoods. To this day, some struggle with mental health issues. For many of our children, they struggle with social/emotional issues as well as learning loss.
For me, it was always about my kids and making sure they had a normal in-person education. So, as I describe what has happened since August of 2021, please keep that in mind.
When school ended in June 2021, there was great hope and anticipation that when kids returned in late August it would be “back to normal.” Our county health director, Dr. David Damsker, issued COVID health guidance that we could reopen fully. Masks and quarantines were not needed. That didn’t mean children or teachers couldn’t wear masks. It meant, based on his expertise, that school would be “normal.”
However, on Aug. 23, 2021, the COVID health guidance was abruptly changed for all children in Bucks County.
I and so many other parents and children were not only disappointed, but we were angry. What was the reason? What happened? Why did this suddenly change? Parents all thought their kids would go back to school normally then all of the sudden another normal school year was taken from children in Bucks County.
What took place during August 2021 didn’t sit right with me so I decided to seek answers. As American citizens we have the right to see the emails and correspondence politicians send to each other on taxpayer-funded devices. We have a right to see how decisions are made. What I thought would be an easy question was met with stonewalling and vicious name-calling by our county commissioners Diane Marseglia and Bob Harvie. Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo was non-responsive.
I put in two public Right to Know records requests (RTK), to our county commissioners to see how COVID guidance was created by our county health director. I put in a RTK asking for the emails from Commissioner Marseglia’s second county email address. Stunningly, the county denied my request.
I filed an appeal to the Office of Open Records, and I won the right to receive the emails.
The county, run by majority commissioners Bob Harvie and Diane Marseglia, and in consultation with then-county attorney Joe Kahn (now running for Pa. attorney general) decided they didn’t want to give me the records I won so they decided to appeal to Bucks County Common Pleas Court. Keep in mind they are doing this using our tax money.
I had already won the records when the OOR made its ruling. When I went to the hearing in June the county had hired three attorneys to fight their case. My attorney argued the county’s appeal wasn’t filed correctly and I already won the records and asked that they please give them to me.
Unfortunately, the judge ruled against their having to turn them over without a full trial.
So, majority commissioner Bob Harvie is prepared to continue this in court since he has three attorneys paid for with your tax money. All I have is myself.
The county wants a Bucks County judge to make the entire state less transparent for every resident in Pennsylvania. This is what our commissioners are doing with their legal team funded by your taxes.
COVID may be over, but in Bucks County I am still paying the price for asking for answers about how health decisions were made for our children.
Take this as a cautionary tale. But also take it as an important lesson that transparency in government is a cornerstone to our democracy — a cornerstone that our current county commissioners want to take away from us.
Jamie Walker lives in Chalfont.
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