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Anger protests erupted in Franklin, Tennessee, after a school district reinstated a mask warrant for elementary school students, with some people shouting and heckling those wearing masks in the parking lot during a meeting on the measure.
The Williamson County Board of Education Tuesday night in a special session approved the term, which will begin Thursday and run until at least September 12, according to the district. People opposed to the mandate gathered outside the meeting, chanting: “We will not comply”.
In a video, a man shouted at an individual wearing a mask as he walked towards his car, saying, “We know who you are.” The same man said later, “You will never be allowed in public again. “
“You can go freely, but we’ll find you,” said another man.
Carol Birdsong, executive director of communications for the district, said in a statement Wednesday that while parents are passionate about raising their children, “there is no excuse for incivility.”
“Our families and staff represent a wide variety of thoughts and beliefs, and it is important in our district that all families and staff have the opportunity to be represented and respected,” the statement said.
Children have shown more symptoms with the delta variant of the coronavirus than in previous strains and have been increasingly hospitalized in recent weeks. Children’s hospitals in states with high transmission rates have started to tackle bed shortages, NBC News reported on Monday.
The Food and Drug Administration has issued emergency clearances for Covid-19 vaccines for children and adults over 12, leaving young children more vulnerable to infection. The agency said in July it hoped to offer clearance for children under 12 from early to mid-winter.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recommended that all children wear masks when they return to school this year.
Members of the community were allowed to speak in a public comment section at the start of Tuesday’s meeting in Franklin, where those who signed up were each given a minute to comment on their position. Comments were split between those who pushed for the mandate and others who voiced their opposition.
Some parents argued that there was no legal authority for the district to put on masks, threatening to sue, and said it was a “parental rights” issue.
“Parents should be allowed to choose what they want and how their children go to school,” said David Grimmett, who introduced himself as a lawyer. “At the end of the day, I see these people with masks on, they think it’s better for their children. I believe it is not, I should have a choice.
Actress Leigh-Allyn Baker, who starred in Disney Channel’s “Good Luck Charlie”, was also present at the meeting and argued against the mask’s mandate. She described her children as the ones who could not be vaccinated due to medical exceptions, but still did not want her children to wear masks.
“Either way, the real part of the clown show is that you all think you actually have the power to mandate it,” Baker said. “Because there are these books that I have, and I have them as a gift for you: the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the Federalist Documents. Also, the Bible. And these guarantee my freedom, yours and the freedom of our children to breathe oxygen.
But several medical professionals, who were also parents of school-aged children, argued for the warrant and debunked several comments that the masks were ineffective.
Britt Maxwell, who introduced himself as a doctor at one of the local hospitals, said he was afraid for his two children, who are too young to be vaccinated.
“I’m afraid for the choice they can’t make, because the facts are clear. Children get sick, ”he said. “It’s happening now, pediatric intensive care units and emergency rooms across the country, across the South, are being used at full capacity in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Missouri. And it will eventually happen here. It is a myth that children cannot pass on to other children, because they can.
Jennifer King, who identified herself as a county-school mother of two and a pediatrician, pleaded with the district to put the masks back on.
“As a pediatric critical care physician, we are seeing more younger and previously healthy children admitted with respiratory failure and acute respiratory distress syndrome,” King said. “This trend will only get worse if we don’t act now.
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