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BIPARTISAN REVOLUTION: Protests grow as students revolt against mask mandates

Hordes of students have taken to the streets saying 'enough' to mask requirements

Protests against mask mandates have picked up steam in school districts across the country in recent weeks, notably in purple as well as deep blue states such as Virginia and Washington respectively. Hordes of students have taken to the streets saying "enough" to mask requirements as they organize peaceful protests to pressure politicians to end the pandemic restrictions.

Washougal High School seniors Cade Costales, Caleb Bennett and Harrison Tanner, who call themselves the Freedom Fighters of Washougal on social media, told the National Review how their campaign to push back on what they viewed as an overreach by the government galvanized students across the state. Meanwhile, a crowd of a few dozen Ridgefield High School students gathered at their campus entrance Wednesday, February 9, after walking out of class to protest mask mandates enforced by the state. That said, similar protests were reported in Amboy, Battle Ground, and Hockison, The Columbian reported.

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“It’s not the school district as it is the state that is mandating masks. We are trying to get notice up to the state level to get the mask mandate revoked so it’s optional in schools. So we have freedom and liberty,” Tanner told the National Review. The outlet reported how Costales delivered a speech to his classmates in a stadium next to the school parking lot Monday, February 7, urging them to keep the protests civil, remain courteous to faculty members, and to remember that the state — not their instructors — were responsible for the mandates.

“This is not an excuse for you freshmen and sophomores to disrespect your teachers. If I hear of anybody disrespecting teachers or staff tomorrow…that makes us look bad. We want this to be a peaceful respectful movement. We are just trying to gain back our rights as citizens,” Costales told his classmates. “The teachers in the end are just doing their jobs. It doesn’t come from them. It comes from the state.”

Ridgefield senior Drew Harteloo helped organize the aforementioned walkout after discussing with fellow students and seeing the Washougal protests. “We’ve been working on this for probably two to three weeks now, but we’ve all not wanted to wear the masks for much longer than that,” Harteloo told The Columbian. Ridgefield students assembled in the school's parking lot and walked unmasked into the school building. They declined requests by school officials to put on masks and later continued to protest for about an hour just outside the school building. A handful of parents and other adults cheered from across the street as passing cars honked their horns.

17-year-old Harteloo said the protests will probably not stop until they see a response or acknowledgment from state or county officials. “If we are given information that the mandate is going to lift, we have nothing else to protest,” he asserted, acknowledging that Ridgefield teachers and administrators had supported their rights to protest thus far. “We’ve reached out to people like Jay Inslee and our State Superintendent (Chris) Reykdal. We haven’t heard anything back, and with us being kicked out, it’ll just give us even more motivation to send them more stuff,” Harteloo said. Some other students also echoed his thoughts. “Masks suck,” one student said. “We just want our rights back to make our own choices,” another added.

As of date, the state of Washington requires all staff and students to wear face masks regardless of their vaccination status. Gov Jay Inslee declared in a press conference Wednesday afternoon that Washington will not yet be lifting its indoor masking mandate, referencing recent decisions taken in California and other blue states. However, he said he anticipated the Omicron wave would soon decline and hinted at the possibility of lifting restrictions in the near future. “Today is not the day to lift all masking requirements. But it is no longer a matter of ‘if,’ but a matter of ‘when,'” Inslee said.