Sparks’ comments in NPR interview contradict reports from panelists in white paper

The Orange County Board of Education released a white paper recommending schools return to in-person instruction.

Sparks was criticized by Chapman students for her comments in a July 14 interview with National Public Radio. Panther Archives

After having left to pursue an unsuccessful congressional campaign, Lisa Sparks has returned to her post as Chapman’s Dean of the School of Communication on the heels of criticism she’s faced over the past few months. 

Controversy first arose from a Dec. 2019 email exchange with an alumna who spoke critically of Sparks’ guest speaker invitation to Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Now Sparks is now drawing more flak from both the media and students at Chapman. As a member of the Orange County Board of Education, she voted to approve a 36-paged white paper that recommends schools reopen rather than switch to remote learning.

“It feels like (her vote to approve) is more of a political gain than wanting the student body to feel safe, so I was just really annoyed,” said Alex Drier, a student in Chapman’s School of Communication who took to Instagram to vent his frustration with Sparks. 

In an interview July 14 with National Public Radio (NPR), Sparks mentioned supporting many of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations, explicitly stating, “We're not endorsing that students return to school without masks or without social distancing. We're saying that 100% compliance may be unrealistic.”

NPR’s Sarah McCammon then asked Sparks about a statement in the white paper that reads "requiring children to wear masks during school is not only difficult – if not impossible to implement – but not based on science. It may even be harmful and is therefore not recommended.” Sparks responded that the line was taken from the words of expert panelists that were consulted in a forum. 

However, evidence has emerged that many of the panelists not only disagree with the recommendations put forth by the Board, but in some cases they weren’t aware they were even being consulted for the drafting of the white paper. 

“The first time I heard about their decision was from my wife,” said Joel Kotkin, the Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman, who is listed as an expert panelist on the document. “I don’t know if any of us were consulted. We were just asked to give input.”

According to the Voice of OC, around 80% of the report was already written prior to the panel being held. 

In the white paper’s preface, Sherry Kropp, a retired superintendent of the Los Alamitos Unified School District, is quoted in the forum saying, “We have hurt hundreds of thousands more children than we have helped.” She told The Panther the comment didn’t express her complete viewpoint, though the omission may not have been intentional.

“That was taken quite a bit out of context,” Kropp said. “(Children are) not there to get meals, to get that direct teacher contact, to get significant adults playing a role in their lives. So there’s none of that. That is what I meant when I say it hurts thousands of children that they’re not in school.” 

In the forum, each participant had three to five minutes to speak on their perspective before the board members could ask the speaker questions, according to Kropp. There was agreement and disagreement between panelists, Kropp said, and by the end, a common stance had not been reached. 

“My assumption is that whoever wrote (the white paper) collated all of our comments into one piece, but it didn’t necessarily mean that …  all of us agreed to it,” she said. “I went on the panel because I really wanted to have an intellectual – not political, an intellectual – discussion.” 

Kotkin was disappointed in the nature of the debate. He told The Panther he had criticized the Board at the panel for not including other opinions or respecting parents who might be reluctant to send their children to school. 

“The hearing was too one-sided and didn’t seem to account for the fact that a lot of parents would be concerned sending their kids back to school with no social distancing and no masks,” Kotkin said. “We had to deal with how various parents may react differently to the situation, and we needed to have options.” 

Sparks did not respond to The Panther’s requests for comment.