Crisis in the Dallas Diocese

The unexpected move by Bishop Burns to take local control away from schools and impose a mask mandate the night before most schools reopened in August has resulted in a crisis of confidence in the Dallas Diocese. This has been exacerbated by the manner in which the bishop and the school superintendent, Matt Vereecke, have since treated parents, parishioners and teachers who have legitimate questions and concerns about these policies. Their unwillingness to meet with parents to discuss concerns and help bridge the divide they’ve created, and the countless emails that have gone unanswered are only fanning the flames. This behavior stands in stark contrast to how receptive and willing presidents, principals and pastors have been to listen to these same concerns, despite their hands being tied by the bishop. This is precisely why local control must be returned in order to prevent this crisis from doing long-term harm to the Catholic community here.

Before the surprising move to take away the ability of school leadership to best manage the safety of our children, there was no controversy on the scale we now face. To be sure, some parents were expressing concerns to presidents and pastors about COVID-19 protocols if masks weren’t mandated. But they received reassurances, explanations and even options, such as in the case of St. Monica where portable plexiglass dividers were available on demand.

Today parents with legitimate concerns about the impact of masks on their children get no options (indeed even medical exemptions recommended by doctors are not being granted) and the diocese refuses to explain in a transparent way how decisions are being made and to provide a measurable benchmark for when local control will be restored. Without this information, parents are unable to make informed decisions in the best interests of their children.

This dictate from the diocese resulted in parents pulling kids out of school before classes even began and other parents have continued to make this unfortunate but understandable decision in the weeks since. Examples include children with speech difficulties who need to be able to see their teachers forming words (and vice versa) in order to overcome their challenges and children with diagnosed breathing problems unable to get exemptions.

It doesn’t help matters that what little communication we’ve received from the diocese includes sweeping statements unsupported by science. For instance, this week Superintendent Vereecke’s first letter to parents in a month noted: “[O]ur approach to the masking protocols is a major reason why we are still seeing very few cases of on campus transmission”. Yet he provides no supporting evidence for this claim. Even high schoolers know that to causally infer this we’d need to compare diocese schools with a mask mandate to diocese schools (or otherwise similar schools) without one.

Furthermore, given that other measures have been demonstrated to be far more important, such as high vaccine rates in teachers, keeping sick teachers out of schools, ventilation, and social distancing, calling masking “a major reason” we’ve seen few cases is an especially spurious claim. Indeed, although her entire class was masked, an unvaccinated and symptomatic teacher in California managed to infect half her students in May. Last year, a similar outbreak in Israel among masked kids was triggered by a teacher who knew he was sick.

Like mayors and governors who’ve been caught flouting their own COVID policies, the bishop’s own actions have undermined confidence that this mask mandate has anything to do with science. While students in the diocese schools are forced to wear masks in classrooms and at mass in many of the large churches, Bishop Burns and high school students were indoors and maskless at The Star for the inaugural Catholic Bowl earlier this month.

Parents have responded by withholding donations from their schools’ annual funds and parishioners have stopped tithing. Some parishioners are attending mass at churches outside of the diocese until this policy changes and many families are actively considering not returning to their schools at the end of the semester or year. Hundreds of parents have gotten behind the group Parents of DDS, including myself, to advocate for a return to local control. Earlier this month more than 50 parents protested outside of the diocese and another protest is scheduled for Friday September 24.

If polling were taken, Bishop Burns’ job approval would be underwater with historic negatives. Fortunately for him, he doesn’t face an upcoming election. However, he’s doing the Catholic community no favors with the imperious and tone-deaf manner in which he is administering at the moment. It’s fine if he prefers to rule from on high and does not wish to personally hear heartfelt concerns from parents, but that’s all the more reason to restore local control now so we can work with others who show more care and wish to bring our communities together again.