After parents pushed back on COVID-19 policies, they discovered California school administrators were cracking down on formerly-allowed mesh masks, punishing students for behavior teachers are allowed to do.
QUICK FACTS:
- Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District (PLYUSD) school board member Leandra Blades is speaking out about the treatment of students in her district following pushback from parents about harsh COVID-19 policies, asserting that students are being punished as retribution for parents’ protests even though teachers and staff are flaunting the same rules without penalty.
- Parents who inquired with legal counsel and made their objections known to the board found that their students who were previously allowed to wear mesh masks and breathable sports masks were now banned from doing so, according to Mrs. Blades.
- Students were also unexpectedly penalized for not wearing masks, despite the regular occurrence of teachers and faculty members mingling with masks around their chins or not on their faces at all, as seen in images posted to social media.
- Some students were removed from school and given detention over the mask issue, with the school citing Orange County Health Department as the reason that they were cracking down.
- According to Mrs. Blades, there is no state guidance on masks. And she says some school officials find the policy discriminatory, considering maskless students, teachers, and guest speakers have been frequenting the school for months.
- “Removing kids from school for a dress code violation is not a typical response. Teachers have been questioning why they are treating so-called mask violations in this manner when actual disciplinary problems it’s almost impossible to remove children from the classroom for a single class period,” she explained.
- Blades believes that the school is using its influence over kids as a way of pushing back against a lawsuit being brought against the school on behalf of anti-mask students.
WHAT PYLUSD PARENTS SAID:
- One student’s parent said that her daughter was separated from a friend and made to wait outside the classroom for not wearing a mask, despite not having been asked to wear one.
- “They never did anything wrong. They only answered ‘No’ to the question,” the mother said. “Not until they were escorted up into the front office area were they maskless indoors. No one asked them to put on a mask while inside. On Thursday, both girls had masks on their pockets, ready to put them on, but they were not asked.”
- Several days later, the mom found that her daughter was made to sit outside in the freezing wind for around 15 mins as she waited for her parents.
BACKGROUND:
- PYLUSD made headlines at American Faith last month when board president, Carrie Buck, abruptly ended a meeting because of “incorrectly worn” masks in the audience.
- Fellow board members and eyewitness audience members claimed that was not true, saying that everyone in attendance at the meeting was wearing their mask properly, contradicting Buck’s allegation and raising questions about Buck’s motive for ending the meeting.
