{"id":1367305,"date":"2022-03-09T10:47:44","date_gmt":"2022-03-09T15:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1367305"},"modified":"2022-03-09T15:50:56","modified_gmt":"2022-03-09T20:50:56","slug":"california-authorities-raid-preschool-locations-privately-interview-young-children-over-mask-policy-without-parental-consent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/california-authorities-raid-preschool-locations-privately-interview-young-children-over-mask-policy-without-parental-consent\/","title":{"rendered":"California Authorities Raid Preschool Locations, Privately Interview Young Children Over Mask Policy Without Parental Consent"},"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\">30<\/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%2Fcalifornia-authorities-raid-preschool-locations-privately-interview-young-children-over-mask-policy-without-parental-consent%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=1367305&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--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2022\/03\/29D68F66-954F-4A27-BA97-0F813E3C9225_1_201_a.jpeg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.3.0\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\">According to a new report, California officials went into preschools and separated children as young as two years old from teachers in order to interview them about mask-wearing without prior consent from parents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Fox News <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/california-officials-raided-preschool-mask-policies\"><span class=\"s1\">reported<\/span><\/a> that authorities from the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) went to all three locations of Aspen Leaf Preschool in January after getting a complaint that the\u00a0<span class=\"s2\">school<\/span>\u00a0was not enforcing the state\u2019s mask rule, per the CDSS\u2019 response to a complaint by one of the preschool\u2019s owners, Howard Wu.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cAccording to the CDSS letter, which Wu shared with Fox News Digital, officials with the agency\u2019s\u00a0Community Care Licensing Division\u00a0entered the three preschool locations on Jan. 19, separated the children from their teachers and interviewed them privately about their masking practices,\u201d the outlet noted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cEvery family we heard from after the inspections were furious about the interviews,\u201d Wu told Fox News Digital. \u201cWe were open the whole pandemic about not masking children and the reasons why. The policy was on our website. Put simply, the mask guidance says children can NOT mask when eating and sleeping. In full day child care that\u2019s 3 hours, so masking at other times offers no health benefit. All the families (except 1 in January) supported the policy.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cWe believe in good faith that the agency doesn\u2019t have jurisdiction to enforce another agency\u2019s mask guidance,\u201d he said. \u201cThey could have issued us a citation in 5 minutes and let us take our challenge up through the proper channels. The simultaneous multi-school raids and the child interviews just felt like a power play.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In its response to Wu, the CDSS argued that\u00a0it has the authority to \u201center and inspect a licensed child care facility at any time, with or without advance notice, to secure compliance with, or prevent a violation\u201d of state laws, as well as \u201cinterview children without prior consent and, when necessary, conduct the interviews in private.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cBased on their personal observations and interviews of the facility directors, staff and children, CCLD staff determined that the licensee failed to ensure that staff and children used face coverings as required by the\u00a0State Public Health Officer Order of June 11, 2021, thus violating the children\u2019s personal right to safe and healthful accommodations,\u201d the letter said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">After the preschool closed briefly at the beginning of the pandemic, it reopened in June of 2020 and was open about not enforcing the state\u2019s mask rule. The owners of the school pointed to the fact that children wouldn\u2019t be permitted to wear masks while eating or sleeping, so a mask rule would be ineffective at preventing the spread of COVID-19. \u201cOn top of that, they didn\u2019t believe the masks would be great for children\u2019s development,\u201d Voice of San Diego <a href=\"https:\/\/voiceofsandiego.org\/2022\/03\/07\/state-agency-conducted-mask-raids-interviewed-preschoolers-alone\/\"><span class=\"s1\">reported<\/span><\/a>.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The outlet noted, \u201c[Wu] believes the state\u2019s child care licensing department doesn\u2019t have the authority to enforce the mask mandate \u2013 essentially because of a technicality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In December, authorities came to the Aspen Leaf centers twice and saw that children were not wearing masks and were aware of the facility\u2019s no-mask policy, per Wu. The officials didn\u2019t put forward any citations or include in their report that the kids were mask-less, he noted. However, they sent him a reminder email a few days later telling him that children need to be wearing masks.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In January, a parent issued a complaint to the authorities, and an investigator gave Wu a call and asked him to impose the mandate. Wu explained his belief that regulators don\u2019t have the ability to enforce the rule. Days later, the investigators came to the locations and carried out the controversial interviews with young children.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">According to Voice of San Diego, the agency gave Aspen Leaf a Type A citation, which is the most serious kind of violation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Voice of San Diego reported:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>The California Department of Social Services and its child care licensing program oversee regulatory compliance in preschools. Child care licensing investigators do have the authority to interview children in isolated settings, but many Aspen Leaf parents said they believed such tactics were meant to be used in extreme cases, like alleged child abuse.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\">Regulators \u201cdetermined that the interviews were conducted in an appropriate manner and were a necessary component of the required complaint investigation,\u201d Kevin Gaines, deputy director of child care licensing, wrote to an Aspen Leaf parent, who put forward a complaint.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cStaff are trained to conduct interviews with children in a manner that avoids causing undue stress,\u201d Gaines wrote, adding that an Aspen Leaf adult was in the \u201cline of sight\u201d of each interviewed child.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Wu believes that the preschool was unfairly targeted by the authorities because he pushed back on their authority.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cAfter it all happened I actually pulled every licensing report issued in California during the pandemic to get the data to show we were treated more harshly than any other center,\u201d he told Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Wu\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/californiachildcarelicensing.com\/?fbclid=IwAR23JE7E9KcVd_Ge4OhmHRomskQYjEj_KXN-SRVaf8pF80tO4TG1iZrEguY\"><span class=\"s2\">published the information on a website<\/span><\/a>, stating, \u201cCalifornia has a child care crisis,\u201d adding \u201cthe child care licensing agency is making things worse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The preschool changed its mask rule to prevent being shut down. The state\u2019s mask mandate for child care facilities is set to end on March 11, which is when Aspen Leaf will go back to its previous policy of no masks, according to Wu.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><span class=\"s2\"><i>member<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to a new report, California officials went into preschools and separated children as young as two years old from teachers in order to interview them about mask-wearing without prior<\/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-1367305","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\/1367305","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=1367305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1367305\/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=1367305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1367305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1367305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}