Chaos erupted at a Franklin, Tennesse, school board meeting earlier this week after Williamson County Board of Education voted to reimpose a mask mandate, requiring all individuals in K-12 settings — including teachers, administrators, and all students — to wear face masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Parents of children in the Williamson County School District and Tennessee residents opposed to the proposed mask mandate hurled threats and shouted at school board members as debate closed on the matter, according to the New York Post. The meeting lasted four hours as two groups debated and the school board heard testimony both for and against the proposed mask mandate.
“The chaos erupted Tuesday night in Franklin, just south of Nashville, where the Williamson County Board of Education approved the mask requirement for elementary schools as protesters gathered outside,” according to the Post, citing local media.
“During the heated debate before the measure was passed, a parent who identified himself as former Marine Daniel Jordan told the board,” the outlet noted, adding that parents and residents said they will “come for” board members, in a “non-violent way.”
“Actions have consequences. If you vote for this, we will come for you, in a nonviolent way,” Jordan reportedly said.
Other parents threatened to sue the school district over the measure, telling the board that they would “see you in court,” and suggesting that the mask mandate would not survive a legal challenge. Still others insisted that the locally elected school board was required to listen to parents, who voted them into office in order to manage the school district.
WATCH:
Here’s the video I tried to tweet earlier but wouldn’t go through. A man was being disruptive during the Williamson County Schools meeting and deputies escorted him out. Dozens of enraged anti-mask parents followed. pic.twitter.com/5LXDCJiInW
— Brinley Hineman (@brinleyhineman) August 11, 2021
At least one parent, who identified herself as a critical care doctor, spoke out in favor of masks.
“As a pediatric ICU physician, we are seeing more younger previously healthy children admitted with respiratory failure and acute respiratory distress syndrome than we have in prior strains, as cases in children are on the rise,” she said. This trend will only worsen if we don’t act now.”
Law enforcement was nearly forced to intervene, as a sheriff’s deputy, assigned to keep the peace for the meeting, pleaded with attendees to stay calm.
“We are here for everybody’s safety, we are here for y’all just as much as we are here for everybody else, OK?” the deputy told attendees. “We are here, we are away from our families, some of us are on a 17-, almost an 18-hour day, and that’s me. So I’m here for y’all. I’m here for y’all. We want everything to be peaceful. I am begging y’all to be peaceful.”
One individual did have to be escorted out of the meeting.
The problems continued outside. According to the Washington Post, anti-mask activists flooded out into the parking lot, where they again confronted some school board members.
“We know who you are,” one parent reportedly said to a board member leaving the meeting. “You can leave freely, but we will find you.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its recommendations on in-school masking late last month, suggesting that, in light of the Delta variant of COVID-19, which is spreading across the country, individuals in areas experiencing a significant uptick in COVID-19 cases should mask indoors. The CDC also recommended that all individuals in K-12 settings mask, regardless of vaccination status.
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Source: Dailywire
