A new trend is cropping up in schools dealing with parents and students choosing to exercise their new right to opt-out of onerous school mask mandates in Virginia. While several districts and some anti-science parents sue Gov. Glenn Youngkin over his executive order granting parents the right to “opt-out” of mask mandates, the issue is reaching a boiling point in some areas.
On Wednesday, Youngkin issued an op-ed in the Washington Post further explaining the mask opt-out and assuring parents he was on their side and will not rest until this right for parental choice is won.
Several students this week decided to show up without wearing a useless piece of cloth on their face to school and have been met with swift and decisive punishment from school officials. Some would say schools are more concerned about mask policy than they were last year about addressing sexual assaults in schools.
Some maskless students report being separated and held in an empty office, others report being corralled into auditoriums, denied access to their classrooms, and generally held in detention for their non-compliance. Still, others have been denied access to in-person learning entirely, told they can learn remotely if they don’t want to “wear the uniform” of a face covering.
Reports indicate that students have had different experiences around the state as freedom-loving parents wrestle control from the entrenched authoritarian Democratic Party which has held power in Virginia for the past eight years:
Deep Run High School junior Andrew Kulak was one of those students who didn’t wear a mask to class on Monday.
Kulak said he was sent to the Henrico County High School’s auditorium with approximately seven other kids who came to school without a mask.
“They were told that they will stay there to basically asynchronously learn, so no classroom instruction, which is ironic because SB 1303, what it’s there for is to ensure that our children can be in the classroom and receive instruction and be learning with their teachers,” said Andrew’s mother, Rachael Kulak.
“To hear that he’s been corralled into the auditorium separated, segregated from his classmates, for exercising his right to not wear a mask in this environment is is frustrating, and it’s upsetting,” Rachael added.
Children are being segregated from their peers and kept in detention with limited access to other parts of the school. Sure sounds like what President Biden has called the “new Jim Crow” in the Old Dominion. Apparently, these students are “separate but equal” when it comes to their right to an education.
Another student in central Virginia reported that he was able to attend school without a mask, but had to carry around a piece of plexiglass to put on his desk, a welcome change, actually, from wearing a mask:
Chesterfield County freshman Nathaniel Peake walked into Clover Hill High School without his mask Monday. His mom Tonia Peake said he declined a mask from the school, so he was given plexiglass to take with him to each of his classes.
“He sent me a text at around 8:30 this morning that said, ‘boxed in, still smiling.’ So, I think he’s just happy to be able to breathe,” Tonia said.
Here is newly elected Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares appearing on Fox News yesterday to discuss the matter:
"Parents are really upset that the schools are suddenly deciding 'we're going to pick and choose what to follow'" @JasonMiyaresVA on Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin's Executive Order making masks optional in schools @BillHemmer @DanaPerino pic.twitter.com/R4phtQ9K73
— America's Newsroom (@AmericaNewsroom) January 25, 2022
Why are Democrats using children as pawns in this game of Covid authoritarianism? They will spin it, and say it’s Gov. Youngkin using children, but that’s utter hogwash. Youngkin has simply given parents a tool to say they want their child to opt-out from mask mandates for whatever reason they deem fit as a parent.
The mandates can continue, but parents wishing to avoid the mandate must be reasonably accommodated which means not sending their child to the auditorium for the day rather than the classroom.
Democrats in Virginia, and around the country, are playing a dangerous game, and they’re using children as their shields. There is no part of Youngkin’s order that says parents are prevented from sending their child to school in a mask. Parents are free to do so.
It sounds like liberal school districts around Virginia have taken the side of Bull Connor and other Democrat Party segregationists intent on denying education to children due to their decision to exercise a fundamental civil right.
It’s not just in Virginia, where the fight against rogue school boards and administrators has raged, it’s all around the country.
In central Pennsylvania, a school board member recently made headlines penning a letter in a local newspaper titled, “With all due respect, I don’t work for you”:
Richard Robinson, who is a school board member for the York Suburban School District, wrote the op-ed in the York Dispatch that garnered nationwide attention, explaining why he says he doesn’t work for parents.
In the op-ed, Robinson claims, “I was elected by people who voted to represent you,” while also suggesting parents do not always know what is best for their children.
He writes, “‘Don’t parents always know what is best for their child?’ No, we don’t. Nevertheless, if you are offended because I don’t believe parents are infallible, you can always sue or take your child out of school. Your choice.”
This is the attitude shared, but never aired, by most of these rogue school board members and administrators around the country. They hate parents, they hate that they have to even listen to parents, and they use children to punish parents who dare speak out against the school board.
Democrats in Virginia especially have sunk to a new low separating children and denying them access to in-person education after two long years of this pandemic. Haven’t heavy-handed Covid policies done enough damage to America’s youth? Why do Democrats want this to continue in perpetuity?
It’s time to stop punishing children as the most vulnerable in society simply because liberal authoritarians have the power to do so.
Democrats everywhere will eventually lose on this issue either by the court or the legislature, why keep fighting and inflicting more stress on students in the meantime?
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