Kendall Tietz
High school students in Douglas County, Colorado, staged protests Wednesday calling for the end of a classroom mask mandate, ABC 7 Denver reported.
Students from ThunderRidge High School walked out of class around 9:30 a.m. in protest of the classroom mask requirement, ABC 7 reported.
On Monday, the Tri-County Health Department board voted in favor of a mask requirement for all students and staff, ages 2 and up, regardless of vaccination status, ABC 7 reported. The new order does not allow individual counties to opt out of the mask requirement.
“We understand that some parents and students are frustrated and disagree with the mask requirement, but masks provide protection and prevent the spread of disease which allows students to remain in school where they learn best,” Tri-County Health Department told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Some students expressed their discontent with the mask requirement.
“I believe that masks, they’ve been going from mostly two years now, this is going to be the third year of my high school career that’s compromised,” student Austin Knapp told ABC 7. “I want a normal high school career there. If you are scared you could stay home.”
Cole Bradley, another Thunder Ridge student signaled to the students behind him and told ABC 7, “These people agree with me. They hate masks, and I do too.”
Parents and students from Ranch View Middle School joined the ThunderRidge High School students in the protest, ABC 7 reported. Students from Legend High School protested on the street with anti-mask signs around the same time.
“There’s enough parents, and there’s enough scientific data to show otherwise, that this is just not a necessary option that they have to take, and there are enough students that feel the same way,” parent Amy Ellis told ABC 7 Denver.
Mask mandates have been a salient issue throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in schools.
The Douglas County School District said it would continue to balance the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Tri-County Health Department public health order.
“We will work with our families and staff members who cannot tolerate a mask due to medical or mental health reasons,” Douglas County Schools told ABC 7. “Our goal is to keep our students and staff in the classroom for in-person learning.”
The mask mandate went into effect Wednesday and is set to remain in place until the end of the year, ABC 7 reported.
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There should be consequences to districts and states that require masks. I am against them! Your choice if you want to wear one, but the scientific evidence is showing they aren’t making any difference against covid, but could be causing other health and developmental issues.
Districts that mandate masks should HAVE to provide online real time classroom education for those students who don’t wear masks and opt to do home school online options. They should be in their REGULAR classroom, live with the rest of the class. They proved it could be done all last year. Put cameras and monitors in every classroom so this can be accomplished and each teacher must provide this learning experience for all students who do online classes.
This also solves what we are facing in our district in Arizona, schools are not supposed to mandate masks but they are. If an unmasked student comes in contact with a covid person, then the MASKED person is quarantined! But if both are wearing masks no quarantine is necessary. Doesn’t matter about vaccination status, and one teacher exposed the children to covid and she was fully vaccinated and masked, but the only child that got quarantined in that situation was the one not wearing the mask!
ENOUGH already.