From North Carolina to Florida, protesters have disrupted school board meetings over masks, CRT
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School Board Battle
School board meetings used to be a pretty quiet affair with few people in attendance and little conflict. Now, meetings across the country are seeing protest outbreaks and arguments over topics like Critical Race Theory, masks in school and the COVID vaccine. Here’s The News & Observer’s series on the school board battle.
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School board battle zone: How Critical Race Theory, masks became front lines in NC culture wars
From North Carolina to Florida, protesters have disrupted school board meetings over masks, CRT
What is Critical Race Theory and is it taught in NC? Answers to common questions.
What do you think about masking and vaccinations in NC schools? Take our survey.
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School board meetings across the nation have become heated in recent months — at times breaking out into threats with some protesters getting arrested.
The issues of whether to require students to wear face masks or to get the COVID-19 vaccine or how race and gender should be taught have led to heated meetings.
Here are some of the incidents at board meetings and at schools that have made national headlines:
▪ One person was arrested at a school board meeting in Palm Beach County, Florida, in August when he refused to sit down in a room reserved for unmasked people after getting several warnings, WPTV reported. Attendees were upset the school board was considering filing legal action over not being allowed by the state to mandate masks.
▪ Police physically carried out a seated woman from a school board meeting in San Antonio, Texas, in August, KSAT reported. The woman had taken off her mask and refused to put it on or leave the room.
▪ Protesters shouted “we will not comply” when they were asked to mask up at a Louisiana State Board of Education meeting in August, The Daily Advertiser reported. The protest led to the meeting being adjourned, with protesters shouting “traitors” and “recall.”
▪ Anti-mask demonstrators heckled and threatened doctors and nurses who were leaving a school board meeting in Williamson County, Tennessee, in August, The N&O reported.
▪ A parent ripped off a teacher’s face mask in Austin, Texas, days before the first day of school in August, McClatchy News reported.
▪ One person was arrested after a large crowd disrupted a school board meeting in Loudoun County, Virginia in June, The Washington Post reported. Protesters were upset about Critical Race Theory and a board policy affirming rights for transgender students.
▪ A Sunday School teacher was arrested after refusing to wear a mask at a New Hampshire school board meeting in May, NBC Boston reported.
▪ Charges were filed against 11 people who disrupted a school board meeting in Utah in May by shouting anti-mask messages, KUTV reported.
This story was originally published September 29, 2021 at 6:00 AM with the headline "From North Carolina to Florida, protesters have disrupted school board meetings over masks, CRT."
