Jennifer Leeper

I was disappointed to learn that my email distribution list had been requested in a Freedom of Information Request and is now being used for political purposes. You, like me, may have received a political email this morning because of this. I want you to know that I take great pride and appreciation in your willingness to share your information with me so as to stay up to date with our state government and my work on behalf of our community. Your participation and communication with me makes me a better legislator and representative for our community and I've been so grateful for your outreach and look forward to continued dialogue. Unfortunately, this misuse of the Freedom of Information Act for political purposes erodes trust and people’s willingness to share their information and therefore, limits their ability to stay informed about what is happening in their community. 

I will be pursuing a policy where this email list would belong, not to me, but to the 132nd district and available to whoever is elected to represent it and therefore, shielded from FOIA requests seeking it for political gain. This would also help residents feel more secure in signing up for updates knowing that this could not continue to happen. 

You likely heard yesterday that the Governor announced, at the recommendation of the Commissioner of the Dept. of Public Health and the Commissioner of the Dept. of Education, that the mask requirements in schools be made a local decision as of Feb. 28th. As of yesterday, CT’s infection rate was 4.77% with 631 hospitalizations reflecting a continuing downward trend, which is great news. The Governor called this “the right decision at the right time” and after speaking with hundreds of members of our community, members of our Board of Education, other town leaders, and medical professionals, I agree. While there will never be a perfect moment to make this transition, with vaccines widely available to our school-aged population, the oral treatment available, and the vaccine expected to be available to kids under 5 at the end of the month, now is the time to begin empowering communities to take ownership of their masking protocols.

I have been in daily conversations with legislative leadership and colleagues advocating for swifter updates in policy to reflect the data trends and the expanded access to tools to combat this disease. I am thrilled to see that playing out. What we will vote on will allow the public health experts via the Commissioner of the Dept. of Public Health to make adjustments through the end of the school year should something catastrophic happen with a new variant, which they do not anticipate. I believe this outcome is a reasonable compromise to empower local decision-making around our children in schools while also maintaining sensible guardrails to protect our community against any worst-case scenarios. However, I have stated that I think it's time to allow this decision to reside with families. In an effort to restore trust between our community and government, I would prefer to let this executive order expire, and should there be a catastrophic variant, have the Governor announce a new state of emergency. For these reasons, I will still be voting no on the codification of the executive orders on Thursday.

As we navigate this transition, it’s important to be gentle with one another, people have had widely divergent experiences through this pandemic with varying degrees of pain, grief, and trauma. Some people will continue to mask their children and others will not, it's critically important to be tolerant and accepting of everyone's own risk tolerance as we wean off mitigation strategies and find our way back to normal. 

You can watch the Governor's press conference here.