Students at a Wisconsin high school have had enough of the stringent mask-wearing policy we have come to know over the last year.
As reported by The Federalist, dozens of students in Wisconsin’s Tomahawk School District are facing truancy citations after walking out of classes last week in protest against the school's mask policy. What’s more, the students are also facing a fine of nearly $100 each.
The protests began on May 3, when several students demanded the school district end its mask policy on school property. The following day, approximately 50 students walked out of classes after an unsuccessful meeting with administration.
The students dubbed the protest “No Mask Monday.”
“They were told, ‘Either you can put your mask on or go home.’ One of them was my son,” Ryan Hawley, a parent, said. “He was sent home at 8:30 a.m.”
More students joined in and about half a dozen were sent home, according to parents. The protest was a bust, as administrators have refused to budge on the mask policy.
The students were given 20 minutes to argue their case against the mask policy during a May 5 meeting, but were told to put their masks back on and return to class.
“The whole point of the meeting was so we could show our input and our opinions and they completely threw that away and made us put masks on right after the meeting,” Hawley’s son told a local news station, per the Daily Wire.
Parents said their children were even threatened by school officials with arrest or social services involvement.
“The high school charged all the kids with truancy even though parents had called in to excuse their children’s absences,” Hawley said. “They were just being difficult and wanted to make an example out of the kids standing up for their First Amendment rights.”
Despite the administration’s response, the protests continued for a few days, but stopped when the Tomahawk School Board said it would discuss the policy at their May 11 agenda meeting.
