Have we really come to the point where, even in our little neck of the woods, righteous anger over one’s political beliefs means one can try to shout down those who disagree with us at a public meeting?

Have we really come to the point where, even in our little neck of the woods, righteous anger over one’s political beliefs means one can try to shout down those who disagree with us at a public meeting?

It would seem so, based on the reaction of some Iberia Parish residents who took it personally when one person was not allowed to speak at the parish school board meeting Wednesday about the issue of a facemask requirement for students, as noted in a story in The Daily Iberian on Friday.

The board’s rules state that an item must be on the agenda for the public to speak about it — a seemingly reasonable rule so that meetings are not interminable as speaker after speaker talks about any issue that strikes his or her fancy.

Board member Brad Norris suggested the issue be placed as an agenda item for the next school board meeting, which would allow members of the public to address their concerns to the board at that meeting. (That suggestion was met by applause.)

Facemask requirements — which the governor has mandated for all indoor public spaces, including schools, after a big upswing in COVID-19 cases and deaths across Louisiana — are a hot-button issue for many who feel their rights, and those of their children, are being trampled.

But yelling “Coward!” at the school board after not allowing someone to speak on the issue is probably not the best way to change minds and hearts.

Nor is the “You work for us” argument. That was also shouted at school board President Elvin Pradia after he said people were required to wear facemasks if they wished to attend the meeting.

Yes, Iberia Parish’s school employees, and its school board members, are paid (at least in part) from local taxes. But it’s unreasonable to think that the board, or the school administration, answers to each and every request or demand from a taxpayer or resident.

One person may want the board to allow parents to decide whether their children wear masks to school. That person’s neighbor might feel that all children should be required to wear masks when attending school as a precaution to help prevent the spread of COVID. It’s easy to see how the board can’t obey each and every wish on every matter without the result being total chaos.

The police “work for us” also. But if a person commits a crime, do they have the right to tell officers “You work for me” when they come to arrest them? Of course not.

The school board certainly should listen to — and hear — the concerns of parents. One parent was upset because her 7-year-old was put in an isolation room on the first day of school because the student did not have a mask. The child was upset by the situation, and that understandably upset the parent.

Does that mean that parents should prevent the board from actually doing its job, as a group of people who refused to wear facemasks at the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education meeting did Wednesday in Baton Rouge?

That meeting was halted early because of repeated disruptions from members of the crowd, a large number of whom refused to wear masks.

There were 6,606 new COVID-19 cases reported in Louisiana Wednesday, with 28 percent of those cases found in children. Masks might not be an unreasonable requirement.

And parents — taxpayers and residents, after all — have a remedy if they do not like what their local board members are doing. It’s not to disrupt meetings or shout down opposition, as at the Baton Rouge meeting. That remedy is at the ballot box, by electing different representatives.