Mother lashes out at Tennessee school's 'evil' decision to put kids who refuse to wear masks into separate classrooms for all-day detentions before being escorted out of meeting by deputies
Furious parents have lashed out at a Tennessee school district for detaining kids who refuse to wear masks all day in separate classrooms where they're not taught properly.
Williamson County Superintendent William Golden explained at a school board meeting on Monday that the move is a response to a court order barring families from opting out of school mask mandates.
Under the policy in the school district outside Nashville, students who don't wear masks, and don't have an approved religious or medical exemption, are being placed in separate rooms from their classmates and supervised by detention monitors.
'We do have teachers, who are in-school suspension teachers, who do that daily work -- the quality of it, I'm just going to be frank, is not the same as physically being in a classroom,' Golden told the school board.
But as he spoke, angry mother Kristin McKinney could be heard yelling from the audience: 'No one's teaching my kids. No one's in there talking to them, they're being told to be quiet.'
Williamson County Superintendent William Golden said at a school board meeting on Monday that students who don't wear masks without exemptions are getting in-school suspension
Mother Kristin McKinney slammed the district and explained that she and her daughters were refusing to apply for a mask exemption or wear masks on ideological grounds
As McKinney was escorted out by deputies for interrupting, Golden conceded that those kids who'd been separated for not wearing masks were effectively at an all-day detention.
He said: 'We don't have the capacity, for someone who elects not to be there, to give them that same quality instruction, we just don't.'
Earlier in the meeting, McKinney had spoken out during the public comments portion, explaining that she and her daughters were refusing to apply for a mask exemption or wear masks on ideological grounds.
'My children deserve better,' she said, saying that her kids had been isolated in in-school suspension for six days as of Monday.
'There are at least 400 kids in their school right now who walk around the school without mask all day long, because their parents signed a piece of paper against an unlawful mandate,' McKinney said as her children stood beside her.
'Because my kids don't have that piece of paper, and as a parent, I am not going to put them in harm by putting a mask on them, they're being isolated, sensory deprivation!' she added.
'And yes I'm angry because these are the most precious things in my life,' she said, gesturing to her children, 'and what you are doing to them is evil and wrong.'
'And yes I'm angry because these are the most precious things in my life,' McKinney said, gesturing to her children, 'and what you are doing to them is evil and wrong'
Third grade teacher Keyona Moxey is masked up as is all of her third grade students at Warner Arts Magnet Elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee in August
Public health agencies say indoor mask-wearing is a key coronavirus-prevention tool.
The CDC says masks don't pose health risks for children older than toddlers, and recommends them for schools since vaccines still aren´t authorized for children younger than 12.
But some parents argue that masks hinder social and psychological development, and point out that most children are at very low risk for serious cases of COVID.
As in the rest of the country, the debate over school mask mandates in Tennessee has played out in contentious legal battles for months.
Republican Governor Bill Lee has issued an order allowing families to opt out of school mask mandates, but multiple court rulings have overturned the order in several counties.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw blocked Lee's order in Williamson County, an affluent region just south of Nashville, after two other judges ruled against it elsewhere in the state.
All three lawsuits claimed that Lee's order violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits the exclusion of students with disabilities from public educational programs and activities.
Republican Governor Bill Lee has issued an order allowing families to opt out of school mask mandates, but multiple court rulings have overturned the order
Children with certain disabilities are more vulnerable to serious illness or death if they get COVID-19, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said.
'Based on the record before the court, due to the rise in COVID-19 cases in Williamson County, including at plaintiffs´ schools, along with a significant number of students who have opted out, plaintiffs have likewise been denied access to a safe, in-person education experience,' Crenshaw wrote in his 18-page decision.
'Gov. Lee has offered no affidavits, declarations, or any other factual predicate to support his assertion that universal mask mandates would require significant resources,' the judge added.
Lee told reporters at the time that he couldn´t talk about the specific litigation but pointed out that there had been multiple lawsuits against mask mandates.
'There are very strong opinions on both sides of this. I think that´s why the strategy we took, which allowed districts to provide a requirement but gave parents an opt-out, was a good way forward,' Lee said. 'And we still believe that´s the right direction.'
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