Students take a stand against masks in school
By Shannon McKone on Friday, February 18th, 2022 in Featured Stories Northeastern Oregon News
LA GRANDE – Schools in the La Grande School district have seen more activity in recent weeks than many parents or teachers typically experience as student and parent-led protests have been held on multiple occasions mostly centered at La Grande Middle School.
The first protest of consequence occurred on February 10th when a group of students at the La Grande Middle School attempted to enter the school without wearing masks. The next day a group of students, parents, and community members gathered on the sidewalk in front of the school with signs decrying the statewide mask mandates established for Oregon Schools in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. According to Sheriff Cody Bowen the protest on Friday, February 11th was peaceful, with an estimated 75 people in attendance.
We caught up with a parent and student in attendance along with others in attendance.
The middle school student explained that he was among the very first to choose to remove his mask in opposition to the existing mask mandates he asserted his right to protest the mask mandates. When asked why he chose to do so he referred to his changing experience in school attendance—before the masks, he attended school and learned, with the presence of masks he simply tried to get through the day.
When asked about his experience compared with other students who chose to continue attending school, his response what that “everyone deserves a choice”. “If they want to wear their masks,” he said, “that’s fine…but you should not have to wear one.”
As the honking horns of passing cars expressed their support for the cause of the protestors, the conversation moved on to the question of the reasons for masking requirements in schools. The mother of the boy explained that “there’s been a lot of data that [lockdowns and cloth masks] have not been effective at stopping the spread…At this point in time, its been 2 years, there’s[sic] therapeutics, there’s health and lifestyle changes, there are N95s, there are vaccines. There are multiple ways for people to protect themselves.”
She went on to explain that at this point, making a cost-benefit analysis of the measures show that mask mandates and the effects of requiring masks in schools throughout the day cost more, specifically in the effects on health and socialization, for young students than the benefits those measures bring.
Commenting on the reasoning behind the mandates, she explained that she feels that these decisions need to be returned to individual communities to make the decisions and that she feels the fact that they have not been returned to local decision-makers, is “a political ploy.” This sentiment was echoed by a number of those present, and even voiced as the primary goal of the protest by some.
When asked what the purpose of a protest at the local level might accomplish if the mandates were established by the State government rather than the local school district and administrators, she responded that many of the parents have been reaching out to every level of government including letters and called to their state representatives, speaking with County government officials including County Commissioners Matt Scarfo and Paul Anderes, and attending local school boards. “But at this point,” she said, “the only way to make our voice heard is to be more public.” She said that she hopes that these protests might “pressure folks into listening to us.”
As the conversation began to wind down, we moved on to the question of the March 31st ending of indoor mask mandates as announced by Governor Kate Brown on February 7th. Her response fit with other sentiments, that if the state removes masking requirements on a date, protestors call arbitrary, what’s to stop the state from re-imposing the mandates at their whim. She explained that at this point, 2 years into the pandemic, most people have a choice about wearing masks, they can choose not to attend events or frequent businesses in which they would have to wear masks. For most adults, she said, they can take a break to take off their mask if they need to. “But these kids don’t,” she said, “if they choose to enter this building they have put on a mask and they have to wear it all day. It’s not fair.”
Her sentiments reflect a large cross-section of parents of students in the area though not all parents encouraged levels of protest. One parent mentioned that they agree with the stand students are taking against the masks, and their child did participate in the protest before school, however, they did feel that their child’s education is important, so that once the school day started, they did expect their child to be in the classroom and adhering to wearing the mask when asked to wear one.
The child told us that they don’t like wearing masks and they hope that soon they won’t have to wear one to school.
School administrators were present as kids who refused to wear the masks were not allowed to attend classes and organized the return of those students to their parents or guardians care. When asked about their thoughts on the protest they referred us to the statements sent out by the La Grande School District. Though they did say, “We love our students and we love our parents, and we appreciate the opportunity to educate.”
See the official statements from the La Grande School district in the links below.
