A ‘respiration trash muzzle’? Angry parents give Wake school leaders earful over masks
Wake County school leaders say they will continue to follow state guidelines that require masks to be worn in schools, despite calls from some families to unmask their children.
Several speakers at Tuesday’s Wake County school board meeting urged the district to emulate Harnett County in defying North Carolina’s school mask requirement. During verbal and written public comments, speakers said Wake has no excuse now against making masks optional in school.
“If Harnett County Schools can do it, why can’t you?” said Jessica Lewis, who says her 7-year-old son has difficulty wearing a mask “You say your hands are tied by Gov. Cooper and Mandy Cohen. No. Stand up for our children.”
But board members said they legally need to continue the mask requirement. The school year has ended for most of Wake’s students, but more than 19,000 masked students will be attending the district’s summer school program.
“As I indicated in several emails to constituents, we took an oath as elected officials to maintain the laws and constitution of the state and the United States,” school board chairman Keith Sutton said in an interview after the meeting. “So I don’t plan as board chair to initiate any action that would be in violation of the law.”
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services has required face masks to be worn in schools since the start of this school year. The face covering requirement is part of the Strong Schools Toolkit that’s been adopted by the State Board of Education for how schools are to operate during the pandemic.
“Current guidance follows the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to protect children from COVID-19, particularly as new and more contagious variants are on the rise and children under 12 cannot currently be vaccinated,” Catie Armstrong, a DHHS spokeswoman, said in an email Wednesday. “We expect that all schools will follow the guidance outlined in the toolkit to fulfill their obligation to keep their students safe.”
Some places drop mask mandate
But other states have dropped their school face mask requirement, and some, such as South Carolina, have banned school districts from requiring them.
Last week, the Harnett County school board voted to make face coverings optional for all people in its summer school program, including students.
“Counties all over the country and many states have already started lifting their mask mandates, including in this state,” said Tyler Boyd, the father of two children. “Now everyone knows the Wake County school system is known for excellence. So I don’t see why this county can’t be one of them.”
DHHS and Cooper’s office have not responded to questions from The News & Observer about whether school districts face any consequences from the state for not following the mask mandate.
Sutton said it would be a misdemeanor under state law to violate the executive order or DHHS guidelines. He also said the school reopening law approved by the General Assembly says districts are to follow the Strong Schools Toolkit.
“I don’t know again that we would willfully and blatantly disregard the law,” Sutton said.
Religious objections to mask mandate
Several speakers this week cited religious reasons for ending the mask requirement.
“Know that even if you don’t believe in a higher power and you don’t want to listen to us, you’ll have to listen to and answer to the higher power at the end of your life or when Jesus returns,” Sienna Catherine told the board. “You’ll have to answer for why you forcefully masked children and kept them out of school.”
Christy Zellman told the board that requiring masks violates the religious and civil rights that are guaranteed in federal law.
‘Obey the law and do whatever it takes to end this mask mandate immediately,” she said. “This is illegal and needs to end now.”
Requiring masks is pushing “a spirit of fear which comes from Satan,” according to Julie Savage. She told the board that masks are “respiration trash muzzles” and that the COVID-19 vaccine “comes from the pits of hell.”
“You are asking more of them than God does,” Savage said. “He created us to breathe freely and tells us not to live in fear.”
School board members don’t normally interact with the public at the meetings. But board member Jim Martin said he wanted to give a “minor chemistry lesson” Tuesday to people who brought in signs saying it’s unsafe to wear masks.
“A little bit of chemistry says you’re going to be just fine wearing a mask, and viruses just might be stopped and you might save somebody’s life,” Martin, a chemistry professor at N.C. State University, said to the audience.
Accusing Wake of promoting Marxism
The criticism of requiring face masks was also mixed in Tuesday with complaints about what’s being taught in class. It comes amid charges that schools are promoting Critical Race Theory, a view that holds that systemic racism has been and continues to be a part of the nation’s history.
Leigh Gowin criticized Wake for allowing Black Lives Matters murals in schools, calling the movement “Marxist propaganda.” She also took the board to task for considering a new equity policy that says schools need to go beyond preventing intentional discrimination to also target “systemic, even if unintended, biases that can be seen or detected.”
“The truth is the school system is too busy and more focused on replacing churches, families and communities,” Gowin said. “The truth is this board is blatantly adhering to a Marxist political agenda and your ultimate goal is to turn the children of the next generation into Communists.”
This story was originally published June 16, 2021 at 1:04 PM.
