Maskless moms gone wild: Cops called at out-of-control Florida school board meeting
A Central Florida school board meeting may have turned into a super-spreader event on Tuesday.
Several mothers who refused to wear masks to a Volusia County School Board meeting in DeLand (which was, ironically, held to discuss extending its mandatory mask policy) had to be escorted out by DeLand cops.
Video posted by a local Spectrum News 13 reporter shows a snippet of the chaos at an auditorium at the Volusia County Board of Education building before police arrived.
“You’re trespassing,” says a masked school official in a suit and tie.
“You can’t be trespassing on public property,” responds a woman. “We live in a free country.”
The Volusia County School Board’s mandatory mask policy, which applies to students, staff and visitors on school district property, was set to expire Nov. 3. Tuesday’s emergency meeting was to vote on extending it. Masks were required for all in attendance, including some kids. But all hell broke loose when some moms didn’t follow the rules.
A mom posted part of the contentious meeting live on her Facebook page. Rachel Cohen wrote next to the video: “Tyranny is alive and well in Volusia County.”
Nancy Wait, spokeswoman for Volusia County Schools, released this statement to the Miami Herald:
“They were asked many times by several different people (attorney, school board chairman, district security, police, etc.) to comply with the face covering policy or leave the meeting room. They were also offered the opportunity to leave the room and come back during public participation to provide comments without their masks. They were clearly taking a stand against face coverings. Their actions became very disruptive, which delayed the start of the board meeting for over one hour. Police were called to assist because they refused to leave when they were legally trespassed from the property. The police made numerous requests for them to leave, but they repeatedly refused and had to be removed by police from the building.”
No arrests were made, but seven people were ejected.
Eventually, the board unanimously approved the mask mandate, Wait told the Miami Herald.
“Volusia County Schools is following the advice of our local health department, as well as CDC guidelines, regarding face coverings,” she said. “Once the meeting was able to begin, the school board did adopt the mandatory face covering policy.”
This story was originally published October 28, 2020 at 3:38 PM with the headline "Maskless moms gone wild: Cops called at out-of-control Florida school board meeting."
