‘Let them breathe’: California high school students protest mask mandates

Hundreds of high school students in Oakland, California have been protesting the mask mandate ordered by Governor Gavin Newsom and enforced by schools. The ‘Let them breathe’ initiative, a concerted effort by students and parents to fight the mask mandate, has seen hundreds of students refuse to wear masks in schools, resulting in them being segregated from their classmates and even refused education by school authorities. 

On Wednesday alone, 375 students refused to wear masks in school while parents protested outside. 

“Oakdale CA students throughout the district are refusing to wear masks,” an account called Let Them Breathe wrote in a tweet. “High schoolers have been sent to the gym and filled it with more unmasked students on their way.” 

Let Them Breathe then took aim at California Governor Gavin Newsom, who was photographed last week wearing no mask at the NFC Championship game, defying his own orders while he rubbed elbows with celebrities. 

“These kids are following the governor’s example and we are here to legally support their rights,” read the tweet. 

One mother, Jennifer Poth, says her 8-year-old son was forced to sit and do his work in 43-degree weather when he refused to wear a mask. 

“They called me to ask me to pick him up, and I refused. I said, ‘No. It is your job to educate my son, and he has every right to be there,'” Poth said. “They forced him to go outside in 43-degree weather and sit there and try to do schoolwork.” 

Superintendent Dave Kline said that was a “mistake”, but still claimed to be enforcing mandates because of the law. 

“I respect their right to protest,” said Kline. “However, we’re under a state mandate and the state mandate carries the force of law." 

Many schools are now coming under fire for hiding behind the law to enforce mandates. In Northern Virginia, schools that cited the law as a basis for heavily enforcing mask mandates on children are now openly defying the new state law that bans such mandates in schools.