BATON ROUGE, La. — During his monthly radio show on WRKF, Governor John Bel Edwards stood his ground on the mask mandate that has kids of all ages wearing a mask in the classroom.
“Quite frankly, with respect to schools, it is the only way that we have a reasonable shot to keep schools open and keep kids safe. And I would hope that the people of Louisiana would come to understand that and deal with it,” said Edwards.
But there was little understanding in Baton Rouge just hours earlier.
At a meeting of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education or BESE, dozens of parents who vehemently oppose the mask mandate in schools came ready to fight.
The meeting quickly spiraled out of control, with a packed audience of people refusing to wear a mask, and chanting in front of the board.
“No more masks! No more masks!” chanted the crowd. The board soon left their desks, leaving the crowd to share their thoughts amongst themselves.
Pastor Tony Spell, who has been arrested for defying statewide COVID guidelines in the past, blamed the media present at the meeting for hiding the truth about masks and vaccines, and then said to the crowd, “You have the opportunity to stand up for America.”
The group wants BESE to override the Governor’s mandate in Louisiana schools, even though case numbers among children are spiking and children under 12 years old cannot be vaccinated.
Governor Edwards believes the parents in protest of masks are in the minority.
“The idea that you would have kids coming together, unmasked, in close proximity to one another, for seven hours a day, in big numbers, and then leaving and going back out into the community,” he said.
Wednesday, President Joe Biden said his administration will begin taking on Republican governors who ban mask mandates in schools.
“This isn’t about politics. It’s about keeping our children safe. It’s about taking on the virus together, united,” said the President.
In Baton Rouge though, the division was apparent. Eventually, at the BESE meeting, medical experts wouldn’t enter the room of unmasked people so they could share their thoughts.
The crowd refused to mask up.
And so BESE shut it all down. The board is not set to meet again until October.