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Cornerstone parents playing politics

Acting as the Board of Health, Eagle County commissioners did their duty by ordering a civil action against the Cornerstone School to comply with a school mask requirement for in-person education.

The commissioners’ “Job One” is protecting the life and health of the county residents.

The small religious school has made mask-wearing optional, resulting in an explosion of COVID-19 cases.



Relative to its small size, compared with the public schools, the rates of infection were off-the-charts. There have been 22 cases of COVID-19 among staff and students, three persons hospitalized and one staff member died, as of Nov. 30, according to the county attorney.

The school has refused to comply with the mask order, despite warnings and did not provide accurate COVID information to the county.




The same COVID infection explosion occurred among hockey players at an indoor Aspen ice rink recently, some masked and some not.

If this were a freedom of religion issue, I would be concerned. My good neighbor and Cornerstone school board member, Norm Bacheldor and I served on the Basalt P&Z when the commission recommended denial of the Grace Church to Pitkin County.

Norm and I wrote an official minority opinion supporting the church’s rights.

But this is not a freedom-of-religion issue. It’s purely political.

It is tragic that those parents who want their children to benefit from the school’s religious education and want everyone to be safely masked, must risk their family’s health.

County commissioners should know that the views of a commissioner critic, Chase McWhorter, do not represent the majority of midvalley residents.

McWhorter just lost his run for the Roaring Fork School District Board by a 3-1 vote. Bernard Grauer

Basalt