Perhaps the most viewed video of outraged parents protesting school-board mask mandates for their kids came from Clark County School District in Nevada. In September, not only did a group of parents file a $200 million lawsuit against the school board, a copy of it was hand-delivered to each board member during a meeting.
The complaint stated that the board and the school superintendent “blatantly and maliciously” violated the Constitution by imposing the mask mandate on school children. It complained that any benefits masking might provide are greatly exceeded by the damage done to the educational process. “The ability to pursue an education without being subject to health risks … are not offset by any scientifically provable benefits,” said the complaint.
Said the parents, in announcing the lawsuit as copies of it were being handed out to each board member:
You have been officially served a $200 million lawsuit with six complaints and violations under multiple amendments. Your job is not to be concerned with children’s health. You are not nurses. You’re not doctors.
Your only focus is on our children’s education. If the education system here is 50th in the state and you make almost more money than anybody else, it is very clear that you have failed in doing that job.
Accordingly, the parents are not only seeking a repeal of the mask mandate on their children, but $200 million in damages. In addition, the complaint demands that “each defendant be held responsible for breaching the public’s trust to the maximum extent of the law … a category C felony.”
In Tom’s River, New Jersey, things got so heated over the mask mandates that the school board was forced to shut down a meeting. In an interview following the meeting, parent Christina Valenti said:
It’s almost like they can’t go after the adults [to enforce the mandate]. The adults won’t comply, so they’re going after our children.
They’re innocent. They’re [at] the lowest risk.
If you’re afraid, put it on. If you’re not, don’t. But it’s my choice. I should have that choice as a parent.
You’re an educator, educate! Let me parent!
Valenti revealed part of a letter she sent to New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy:
Our parents have had enough of state-mandated masks for our children under the guise of safety. They want the choice to decide what is best for their own children.
This country was founded on the principle of Liberty, and safety does not come before Freedom.
In Chino, California, dozens of parents gathered on a downtown sidewalk waving signs with slogans that said “Let them breathe,” and “Our children, Our choice.”
In Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, parents filed a lawsuit against the mask mandate, this one aimed at the state’s Acting Health Secretary Alison Beam. The suit claims she doesn’t have the authority to mandate masks in the schools and that her order to do so violates the state’s constitution.
In White Hall, Arkansas, parents of school children have sued the school district for mandating masks. Said parent Laura Golden:
I think it’s everybody’s individual choice. If you feel safe wearing a mask, wherever you go, then that’s great: wear a mask. If you don’t, there shouldn’t be an issue with that.
Just like with the flu shots. When the school sent out the flu shot it’s not mandatory. You choose what you think is best for your child. You sign it, your child gets a shot a school. If not, they don’t. There’s no issue around that.
In New York, the Massapequa and Locus Valley school boards took the position of the parents. They sued New York Governor Kathy Hochul, the head of the Department of Health, and the state’s health commissioner:
The lawsuit demonstrates that neither the Health Commissioner, nor the new Governor, Kathy Hochul, have the power to establish a statewide mandate policy as an emergency health measure, that such authority resides only with the Legislature; otherwise, it is a matter for local control.
And in Charleston County, South Carolina, parent Ashley Regan told Fox & Friends that if a student fails to wear a mask the school board will send him home:
Not only do you have bullying students, you are isolating them. You are segregating them. You are discriminating against students who just want to breathe fresh air….
I don’t think it’s fair for our students to have to wear a mask all day.
Parents in other states across the country have voiced, and continue to voice, their objections to board-mandated masks for their children. Many of those parents are now reconsidering their decisions to send them to public schools. This is reflected in the 300-percent increase in homeschooling just in the last two years.
Perhaps those mask mandates being imposed by public school boards are the best thing to happen to public education, forcing parents to rethink their decision to let the state educate their children.
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