HUNDREDS PROTEST SCHOOL MASK MANDATE
Republican resolution to condemn mandate fails 11-8
PONTIAC >> Mothers, fathers, doctors, nurses and even a high school student spoke to the Oakland County Board of Commissioners on Thursday night mostly condemning the county’s mask mandate for school children that was announced on Aug. 24.
Outside there were a few hundred protesters carrying signs and making enough noise at times to be heard in the commissioners’ auditorium.
Due to COVID restrictions protesters were limited in the auditorium, but once one person left another was allowed to enter. The board was ready to stay until the last voice was heard.
The first speaker, a school teacher, spoke in favor of the mask mandate.
Then the tide turned.
“I would personally like to invite any of you in this room — even Mr. (Dave) Coulter, even MIss (LeighAnne). Stafford. Come into my kindergarten classroom and watch mandated masks. It is beyond obscene,’’ said Autumn Frazier, a Huron Valley Schools teacher. “These little ones are constantly touching them, whining, complaining, sneezing in them, fussing in them, filling them with snot and other substances and wearing them improperly. It doesn’t take a medical doctor to watch this debacle and recognize it’s doing more damage than good.’’
She explained that they can’t communicate properly and she thinks it interferes with their social development.
Each person had three minutes to make their feelings known. Nothing was going to change. The emergency order remains in effect. A Republican resolution by Adam Kochenderfer would have condemned the mandate, but it failed 11-8.
“This is a little bit of a Republican party theater. We had a Republican that put up a resolution, that they didn’t have the votes for, they knew they didn’t have their own members here to vote for,’’ said Dave Woodward, chairman of the board of commissioners.
“I also recognize there are a
number of people who disagree with the mask mandate. I firmly support the mask mandate — it’s what’s necessary to protect all of our kids in school. We want to make sure our kids can remain in-person school. To do that we need to mitigate the virus,” Woodward said. “The vaccine is the best tool. Masks work to help minimize spread … It is the prudent step we have to take.’’
Evangeline Cobb, a freshman at Oakland Christian, didn’t need notes when she stood to speak. “I have Lyme disease which causes severe exhaustion. Every day after school I am so tired I can barely play sports, it causes me depression, it’s such an evil way to live,’’ said Cobb who was accompanied by her dad, Dan. “I hated it so much and dreaded it every day. The teachers told me to put a mask on every single day and it’s the worst experience, it’s pure evil.
“I just pray that everyone here knows we are suffering so much — us students — and it’s not fair. It’s not just me, it’s all my friends. I’ve seen them suffer every day, I see them walking down the hallway depressed. With these masks. I can’t see them smiling, I can’t see them laughing, it’s torture, it’s abuse and it’s not fair for us to live like this.
“I really hope you guys understand we are struggling so much through this, it’s not just the face covering, it’s way more,’’ she added.
Kristen Carr of Oxford brought her 8-year-old son along.
“For the last 3 days in a row he has been kicked out of his school for not wearing a mask. This county and its health department told me that in order for my son to go to school and be afforded his right to an education he has to put on a mask and he tells me he cannot breathe in it,’’ she said. “How am I supposed to force my child to put a mask over his mouth and nose when he tells me he can’t breathe? If I did that at home it would be called child abuse.’’
Frustration with COVID is clearly been an issue for many who voiced their opinions and not just because of the county’s mask mandate for schools. They also ripped the COVID-19 vaccines and the way the pandemic has been handled on a national level.
Erin Pruitt of Rochester Hills hit hard on Dr. Anthony Fauci who is the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Chief Medical Adviser to the President.
“The country has been listening to Dr. Fauci as if he is God and literally knows it all. In my opinion he is the Josef Mengele of the 21st century, the angel of death who experimented on human beings in Nazi Germany,’’ Pruitt said. “Instead of following his recommendations this man should be tried for crimes against humanity. This is nothing short of experimentation on human beings.’’
She was not the only one who strayed from the county mask mandate topic.