Photo via @candlejennerofficial/TikTok, @MorganTrau/Twitter
September 27, 2021, 11:31 am
Alarming videos of an angry crowd of parents swarming around the entrance to a school building and shouting down an administrator backed by at least three cops have spread online among a growing trend of right-wing, anti-mask, and/or anti-vaxxer people flooding school board meetings.
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In Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, a special meeting called by a local school board to consider a temporary mask mandate in a state where the hospital system appears to be teetering on the edge of collapse had to be called off due to a large mob of people who showed up to scream “no more masks.”
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Tense footage was captured from both inside and outside of the building, including a TikTok video that accuses these parents of showing up at the wrong building anyway, though whether this is true doesn’t matter so much when the meeting has to be canceled over too many conspiracy theorists.
The TikTok video briefly shows the parents, enraged at the news that the meeting was canceled because they’re a security threat, screaming and poking angry fingers at the messengers, erupting into chants of “no more masks,” which the user claims went on for five hours, though this was likely an exaggeration.
According to local reporter Morgan Trau, the board members had to essentially sneak out the back while one man and three cops endured the “extremely hostile” crowd swearing and screaming at them. They became concerned for general safety after the protest crowd that arrived was clearly larger than the current maximum capacity for the room where the meeting was being held and had every reason to expect that the anti-maskers would not be content to stay outside.
“It became apparent the number of people intending to gain access to the meeting room exceeded the room capacity allowed under city fire code, and this was communicated to those waiting outside,” said CDA Public Schools in a statement on the incident. “After consulting with law enforcement, the board agreed to cancel the meeting. Some in the crowd began banging on the exterior doors and shouting to be let in as Board members and District staff were led to safety.”
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Their fears were confirmed when, not long after the mob tried screaming and chanting their way into a meeting that no longer existed, “a group of protesters entered the District Office, prompting the building to be placed in lockdown for about 90 minutes.”
Thanks to them, a decision has still not been reached on a mask mandate for the Idaho schools, which have seen hundreds of positive COVID cases since kids went back to school in early September. The state’s hospitals, meanwhile, have had to beg neighboring Washington State to take some of their ICU patients to avoid become completely overwhelmed.
Non-anti-masker commenters on these videos appear to be split between abject horror and despair that the pandemic will ever end while people like these keep assaulting our public schools.
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*First Published: September 27, 2021, 11:31 am
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