San Diego School Board Under Fire for Reinstating Mask Mandate | Angry Parents Gunning for Board Positions
Angry parents are fuming at the San Diego Unified School District Board for reinstating its mask mandate. The high emotions came days after the "No Mask, No School" policy was enacted on Monday.
According to reports, indoor masking is now required for all San Diego Unified School District schools and offices until the end of summer school amid a recent rise in cases of COVID-19.
But these parents are going the extra mile as they are now gunning for the San Diego school board positions in an effort to overturn these mandates.
San Diego School Board Mask Mandate
After lifting it last April, the San Diego Unified School District Board is reinstating its mask mandate. KBPS reported that the reinstated mandate applies to all students, teachers, and staffers attending summer schools and enrichment programs for the next two weeks.
San Diego School Board president Sharon Whitehurst-Payne said any child who will be entering the school without wearing the mandated mask would not be allowed entry.
"They can opt not to return to the regular school, but to go to the school... via Zoom," Whitehurst-Payne noted.
In a letter announced publicly, the school board highlighted that they would continue to monitor data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to check if there would be policy changes. However, it is not only San Diego City that is strengthening its COVID-19 safety guidelines.
Democratic-led cities like New York City, Chicago, and D.C. are also re-enforcing guidelines like home quarantine and indoor masking. The mandate, however, angers a mob of parents from San Diego city.
Parents 'Fuming' Over San Diego School Board Mask Mandate
Parents of San Diego City students have voiced their concerns over the district's reinstatement of the No Mask, No School policy, Fox News reported.
According to parents, the alternative option for students who would not comply with the "unscientific" mandate is "completely unacceptable."
"It is completely atrocious and hypocritical for our elected officials in the school board to be requiring kids to be wearing masks while simultaneously the weekend before, there was an LGBT parade with 300,000 people [unmasked]," Melissa Grace, mom of a 13-year-old, told "Fox & Friends" on Thursday.
Another mother even questioned the effectiveness of using regular masks on indoor venues, alleging that she overheard a school board member expressing interest in giving out N95 masks.
"The school board doesn't have the legal authority to mandate something that hasn't even been mandated by the state of California and the health department. So we actually believe the legal course is the direction to go," Karin De Jauregui, a mother, also told "Fox & Friends."
Because of these sentiments, mothers all over the state are now empowered to run for school board seats in an effort to change these guidelines.
Anti-Mask Parents Gunning For School Board Seats
Sharon McKeeman, a Carlsbad parent who organized the organization Let Them Breathe, publicly denounced the San Diego City mask mandate earlier this week.
In her press conference on Monday, McKeeman announced that she was running for Carlsbad Unified's School Board in sub-district 1, and she urged other parents to "step up" and claim spots on their local school boards.
"Instead of just talking to the school board... be the school board," she noted. The organization emerged victorious in overturning San Diego Unified's student COVID vaccine mandate last December 2021.
For Let Them Breathe, instead of preventing the coronavirus from spreading in classrooms, they said it harms children's social and academic development by adding difficulty in communication.
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