After Wednesday’s announcement that Laramie County School District #1 is implementing a mask mandate, many parents vowed to yank their kids out of school.
On the popular Facebook page, “Cheyenne and Wyoming News”, angry parents announced their plans to either homeschool their kids or not follow the mandate.
“Guess who’s children start homeschool again today?! I’m not playing their games. We parents need to get frickin furious!”, commenter Julie Tesh wrote.
I’m talking storming the castle, at the next school board meeting, kinda furious. Nothing changes if we are silent and passive about it,” Tesh said.
Susan Voigt Branson said she would pull her child from school as well stating that “he won’t be muzzled again.”
“He won’t be in school tomorrow and I suspect there will be plenty other absences across the district,” she said.
Although most commenters on the page seemed to be upset with the announcement, there were those who were ok with the mandate.
“Big LOL at all of the adult babies crying about how wearing a piece of fabric over their mouth is somehow infringing on their personal freedoms here,” Ty Cirillo said.
Meanwhile, Alice Saldana said she didn’t like masks personally but didn’t see the problem with the mandate as her kids would rather attend school in-person.
“I’ve noticed that the mask for some kids does act as a reminder to not get too close and to clean their hands,” she said. “It makes them more aware.”
But Jason Hager said that wasn’t the issue. The issue was compliance with authority.
“Because it is conditioning our children to be compliant while their personal rights are being violated. It’s mental conditioning to get them to accept government control over every aspect of their lives,” Hager said.
The mask mandate will be in place until Laramie County leaves the red or orange zones for community transmission of the virus. When this happens, masks will just be recommended, not required.
“Just as we have seen in the community, our district has experienced a rise in positive COVID-19 cases and an increase in student and staff quarantines,” Crespo said. “Since Aug. 18, almost 1,000 students and staff have been quarantined. Currently, more than 420 are in quarantine. Additionally, we have seen more than 180 positive cases since Aug. 18 and currently have more than 90 active positive cases.”
Cheyenne’s hospital CRMC has more than 50 COVID patients as of this week, the highest amount in the state. Laramie County has the second-highest number of active COVID cases, behind Natrona County.
