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Texas mom calls unmasked children 'loaded firearms' at school board meeting in video

The parent said that in the absence of mask mandates in schools, 'children are spreading Covid throughout the population at greater numbers'

A woman talking in support of mask mandates at a Richardson Independent School District board of trustees meeting has gone viral after she compared unmasked children to loaded firearms. A couple of weeks ago, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office filed lawsuits against six Texas school districts, including Richardson ISD, over their mask mandates.

Richardson ISD began requiring masks when school started in August. Superintendent Jeannie Stone said at the time she was following the recommendations of doctors and proven science in imposing the mask rule in defiance of Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s ban on mask mandates.

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Reportedly, about 85 school districts and six counties have instituted mask mandates of some kind in defiance of Abbott’s ban, citing the need to protect schoolchildren too young to get the vaccine amid the spread of the highly contagious delta variant of Covid-19.  

On September 20, a board of trustees meeting was scheduled. At the meeting, the impassioned speech of one person — presumably a parent — in favor of masks has gone viral particularly for the comparisons she made. While the person in question has not been named, a video shared on Twitter sees her saying, “We do not have society, we do not have a country, if there is no public health.” She said that in the absence of mask mandates in schools, “children are not just suffering and dying at greater rates right now, they are spreading Covid throughout the population at greater numbers.”

She also said that anti-masking rules affect not just schools but society as a whole. She said it affects cancer patients and the immunocompromised and the elderly, and “just about everyone”. The woman added, in what is the most controversial line in the speech, “People do not get to walk around shooting loaded firearms randomly into crowds. And people are not entitled to turn themselves into deadly biological weapons by spraying disease-laden aerosols wherever they choose, randomly killing innocent people.”

“This is not freedom. This is homicide. And willful ignorance is no excuse,” she concluded. As per the New York Times, Texas has a daily average of 11,844 covid cases. The daily average death rate in the state is 300.

On Twitter, one person said of the video: “She belongs in a mental facility. For a long time.” Another tweet said, “Someone needs to lead this woman away to a padded room in a straight jacket. Someone notify CPS.” Another person wrote, “That woman is not fit to be a parent. Or to walk around without supervision. She's potentially dangerous.”

As per guidelines issued by Richardson ISD, all students and staff are required to wear a mask during school while indoors. The website says, “Bullying by any student, directed towards a student who is wearing a mask or student who is not wearing a mask will not be tolerated and will be addressed by the campus as part of the discipline procedures.” It adds, among other things, “children younger than 2 years old should not wear a mask at any time.”

On September 10, Paxton announced that aside from Richardson ISD, Round Rock, Galveston, Elgin, Spring, and Sherman Independent School Districts refused to follow state law — the Texas Disaster Act and Executive Order GA-38 — which place the governor in charge of the statewide response to the Covid-19 pandemic. His office added that it anticipated the filing of additional lawsuits if school districts and other governmental entities continued to defy state law.  

“Not only are superintendents across Texas openly violating state law, but they are using district resources — that ought to be used for teacher merit raises or other educational benefits — to defend their unlawful political maneuvering,” the Tea Party conservative said. “If districts choose to spend their money on legal fees, they must do so knowing that my office is ready and willing to litigate these cases. I have full confidence that the courts will side with the law — not acts of political defiance.”