{"id":1235403,"date":"2022-01-24T13:08:52","date_gmt":"2022-01-24T18:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1235403"},"modified":"2022-01-24T13:08:57","modified_gmt":"2022-01-24T18:08:57","slug":"exclusive-standoff-in-virginia-as-schools-defy-governors-order-making-masks-optional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/exclusive-standoff-in-virginia-as-schools-defy-governors-order-making-masks-optional\/","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Standoff In Virginia As Schools Defy Governor\u2019s Order Making Masks Optional"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fexclusive-standoff-in-virginia-as-schools-defy-governors-order-making-masks-optional%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1235403&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>LOUDOUN COUNTY, Virginia \u2013 Numerous Northern Virginia schools refused to provide in-person education to students who were not wearing a mask on Monday, defying an executive order from Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin that went into effect this week.<\/p>\n<p>Faced between following the rules of the state or the school district, the vast majority of students wore masks to avoid punishment from their schools, but those who did not were segregated into a separate room.<\/p>\n<p>At Woodgrove High School in rural Purcellville, about a dozen adults and a dozen students gathered just before the morning bell to prepare for resistance. They shouted encouragement to other students who were not part of the group but who approached the doors without masks. \u201cBe strong, kids!\u201d they said. \u201cYou deserve to breathe \u2026 Freedom! Do you want it? Or do you want to be a slave to the school board? \u2026 Get rid of the bacteria.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One 11th grader told The Daily Wire, \u201cIt\u2019s our parents\u2019 rights that they are taking away from us. We\u2019re told to listen to our parents. Now they are not listening. It\u2019s about respecting the government. We followed [Democratic Gov. Ralph] Northam, they should follow Youngkin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Erin Thomas, one of the adult organizers, told kids, \u201cYou have every right to exercise your civil rights. \u2026 You have a copy of the EO, a note from your parents. \u2026 The school must provide in-person learning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another student who was not part of Thomas\u2019 group said of Loudoun County Public Schools\u2019 defiance of the executive order, \u201cI think it\u2019s horrible. We\u2019re not going to wear them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But the majority of students interviewed by The Daily Wire said they disagreed with LCPS but would comply with it anyway to avoid getting in trouble. \u201cI think it\u2019s bull \u2026 I think corona is kind of over,\u201d one said. But \u201cI\u2019m going to wear [a mask] because I don\u2019t want to be sent home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another student said \u201cI don\u2019t personally think we should have to wear them because I don\u2019t think they do anything.\u201d But that student had not heard of the new Virginia governor\u2019s executive order, which is designed to restore rights to parents.<\/p>\n<p>A few minutes after school began, Thomas said that \u201cwe just heard from the inside that there\u2019s about 25 kids in the auditorium,\u201d adding that the number was still growing as non-compliant kids were collected by administrators one by one.&nbsp; \u201cSome parents said our kids will be wearing masks until they get to class, then taking them off and refusing to get up, like modern day Rosa Parks,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>She and others said many of the kids told to do work on the computer could not do so because the online platform, Schoology, was not set up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of our kids have straight As,\u201d she said. School systems have \u201cbeen hiding for two years behind the idea that they have to follow executive orders so their hands are tied. That\u2019s why they kicked everyone out of school in March 2020.\u201d But now that the governor is a Republican instead of a Democrat, the districts claim they do not have to, she said.<\/p>\n<p>She said a sheriff\u2019s deputy told the group that the sheriff would not be enforcing trespassing laws on people who were on school grounds for mask protests or disputes, and that the school system would have to ask a judge for an arrest warrant. Sheriff Mike Chapman, a Republican, publicly chafed at the school system for attempting to enlist police to quash dissent as it pushed a controversial transgender policy.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-333782\" class=\"size-full wp-image-333782\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1536\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2022\/01\/3.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2022\/01\/3-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2022\/01\/3-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2022\/01\/3-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-333782\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Unmasked students prepare to enter a Loudoun school \/ Luke Rosiak<\/p>\n<p>Megan Rafalski, the mother of a fifth-grader at Banneker Elementary in Loudoun, told The Daily Wire her son was being permanently kicked out of his elementary school for refusing to wear a mask Monday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy son right now is sitting in the principal\u2019s office. We have a special exception to go to the school we\u2019re at so my son can go to the school with the kids he started with. They\u2019re now telling me his exception is being rescinded for disciplinary reasons. For a one-time incident. He\u2019s never been in trouble before,\u201d she said, adding that she\u2019s been waiting more than two months for a phone call from superintendent Scott Zeigler about masks.<\/p>\n<p>Jill Guercio, the head of the Parent Teacher Organization at Chris Young Elementary in Prince William County, said she walked her two kids into school without masks, the principal told her they would not be permitted to join their classes, and she took them home. \u201cI said I\u2019m not going to let you segregate my kids,\u201d she told The Daily Wire.<\/p>\n<p>Karen Mineo, a LCPS teacher, said she was sent home and put on leave without pay for refusing to wear<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Faced between following the rules of the state or the school district, the vast majority of students wore masks to avoid punishment from their schools, but those who did not were segregated into a separate room.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1235403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1235403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1235403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1235403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1235403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}