Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Mask madness in Laramie.

LARAMIE — Laramie High School was locked down for about 90 minutes Thursday morning during a showdown of wills between school administration and a 16-year-old junior who was arrested and removed from the school in handcuffs.

Grace Smith returned to LHS on Thursday morning after serving two consecutive two-day suspensions for not complying with Albany County School District No. 1’s mask mandate, which says anyone inside a district building must have his or her face covered. The rule, brought on by an upsurge in COVID-19 cases, was put in place last month and will be reviewed by the school board next week, ahead of a scheduled Oct. 15 sunset.

Until then, Smith said she believes the mandate violates her constitutional rights and that she won’t wear a mask. As a result, she has been warned by LHS administration and faces two days of disciplinary suspension and a misdemeanor trespassing citation for every time she’s in the building and declines to mask up.

The first time she was suspended, “I just left,” Smith said. “Then, after talking with our attorney, we decided to push it, so on Tuesday I didn’t (leave) and took the citation for $500 and then left.”
Mask incident prompts police response to Laramie High School
Wyoming News
Mask incident prompts police response to Laramie High School

Morgan Hughes

By not leaving, she was ticketed by the Laramie Police Department for trespassing. After serving a two-day suspension, she returned Thursday and again was ticketed for trespassing.

When she still refused to leave the school, saying she has a right to be there, she was arrested. A pair of LPD officers had Smith put her hands in front of her, placed her in handcuffs and transported her to the police station in downtown Laramie, where Smith was released. The episode was captured on video by Smith on her phone and shows the interactions were calm and respectful on all sides.

While she knew another $500 citation was coming her way, Smith said she was surprised the incident evolved to include a schoolwide lockdown and her arrest, especially as she wasn’t making a scene, wasn’t yelling and had made no threatening comments or actions.

“They told me they were going to do that,” she said about the time leading up to her arrest. “I was surprised they followed through. They came up to me probably 20 minutes before I was arrested and said that if you continue to not leave, we will arrest you.”

That also was a departure from an early conversation the Smith family had with Laramie police about what would happen if Grace continues to show up to school and not mask up, said Andy Smith, Grace’s father.

“They told us how this was going to play out before it happened,” he said. “They all said they were not going to arrest kids. But she was taken into custody, handcuffed and brought down to the detention center.”

In a short statement, the school district acknowledged the “brief lockdown,” which was done in response to a “student disciplinary disturbance” at the main office of the school.

Sean O’Sullivan, a spokesman for the school district, said principals across the district were in one location for a weekly meeting at the time and that nobody was hurt.

“Everyone is safe,” he said. “That’s the big key right now.”

The statement also says the lockdown wasn’t done because of any specific threat of violence or potential for harm.

“The lockdown was issued in order to prevent further interruptions to academic learning,” the statement says.

When asked about how many suspensions have been handed down because of students not wearing masks, O’Sullivan declined to answer, citing the statement, which says that “the school district does not comment on student discipline matters.”

As for any “disturbance” at the school, Grace said there was none. She was calm and quiet, as were school officials, and that for the most part she just sat in the office.

Now, with the potential for future mask refusals to also result in lockdowns, Grace said she is concerned other students and teachers could retaliate.

But she’s prepared for that, and said there already has been some bullying from people she used to consider friends.

“It’s pretty likely some will hold (the lockdown) against me, too, but I would never purposely try to hurt anybody,” she said.

When asked why she’s making such a dramatic stand about wearing a mask, Grace said it’s because she feels morally obligated to stand up for her beliefs.

“It’s because I’m growing up in a country where I’m supposed to have my God-given rights to protect, and they’re being taken away,” she said. “Everybody has the freedom to wear a mask if they choose, but I believe everybody also has the right to not wear a mask if they choose.”

While she has the support of her parents, Andy and Erin, Grace denied they influenced her to act out.

“It was my choice,” she said. “I started refusing masks, and I told them about that. But they’ve been supporting me, and they’ve made it clear this is my choice.”

Andy said he and his wife will continue to support their daughter. They have retained an attorney to fight the citations and, if necessary, the school district’s mandate. That would be a last resort, he said, because he would consider the school or city having to defend a lawsuit a waste of public money.

As for the rest of the school year, it may be over for Grace as an in-person student at Laramie High. She can return after her latest two-day suspension Monday. But when the suspensions add up to 10 days, the potential for expulsion kicks in.

For a straight-A student who takes Advanced Placement classes, not attending school is a sacrifice, she said. She also would have to give up her lead role in the school play and her spot on the dance team.

As eye-opening as being placed in handcuffs and arrested has been, Grace said she has had another type of education since organizing a Sept. 10 walkout and public protest over masks.

“I get cussed out a lot,” she said. “People have called me mean names. Nobody has physically harmed me, but some of my best friends now won’t talk to me.”

She also said the bullying doesn’t just come from students.

“The discrimination from the teachers is just absurd,” Grace said. “I had one teacher who tried to force a mask onto my face.”

In a news release last week, the school district said students who refuse to wear a mask would no longer be allowed inside a district facility. The only exception is for a student who is unable to remove a mask independently.

Superintendent Jubal Yennie said last week that, overall, mask compliance has been good.

“In all things, there’s always those situations that aren’t good, and (Laramie High School Principal Jeff Lewis) and I are working through those as best we can,” he said.

The Albany County School District #1 Board of Trustees approved an operation plan Sept. 8 that includes a universal mask mandate in all buildings and buses. It runs through Oct. 15, and the board is scheduled to revisit the plan during its regular meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday, which will be held virtually.

To consider lifting the mandate, the county will need to be in the COVID “Yellow Zone” for three weeks, indicating moderate transmission, or have its vaccination rate hit at least 70%.

The Wyoming Department of Health reports that as of Monday, the county is in the “Red Zone,” indicating high transmission levels and a vaccination rate of 49%.

She will have all kinds of horrible stuff put in her file. She should get a medal.

That's going on her permanent record.

She needs a dozen of her friends to take off their masks and follow her example. A little groundswell of support goes a long way to put pressure on the school board to act right. Its my understanding the people of Wyoming are hugely independent. I’m surprised more kids and parents aren’t supporting her.

Laramie PD are a bunch of clowns!

Grace Smith, 16.

Kyle Rittenhouse, 17.

Our children are better patriots than half the adults in our Country.

BFD. IF she had a governor like ours, she'd be golden.

Florida State Board Sanctions Eight School Districts for Defying Ban on Mask Mandates


Link


PUNTA GORDA, Fla.–The Florida Department of Education on Thursday sanctioned eight Florida school districts for defying the state’s ban on school mask mandates.

School districts in Brevard, Broward, Duval, Hillsborough, Leon, Miami-Dade, Orange and Palm Beach counties now face financial penalties.

Commissioner Richard Corcoran reported to the board that none of the eight counties had provided any information proving that they were in compliance with state law before Thursday’s meeting.

“They can’t pick and choose which parts of the law they want to follow,” Corcoran said as he was handing out the penalties to the school districts. He also gave the districts 48 hours to amend their policies before the penalties went into effect.

The state law the commissioner was referring to is an emergency rule adopted last month by the Florida Department of Health, that props up the Parent’s Bill of Rights. The rule requires that parents can opt-out their children from wearing mask mandates imposed by schools. The rule states that opting out of mask requirements is “at the parent or legal guardian’s sole discretion.”

The commissioner recommended that sanctions in the amount of one-twelfth of each school board member’s annual salary be withheld. In addition, the commissioner recommended withholding funding in the amount equal to any federal grant the districts receive, namely the Project Safe Grant.

The Biden administration has dedicated taxpayer money from the Project Safe Grant to repaying school districts the funding lost due to defying state bans on school mask mandates.

These grants according to Corcoran serve to “backfill” what was withheld from Broward and Alachua districts for not complying with state law regarding mask mandates. Last month the U.S. Department of Education chose to award COVID-19 aid funds to cover salaries of board members in Broward and Alachua Counties. Corcoran said they were the only two districts in the country to apply for and receive this type of grant funding.

Corcoran reported during the meeting that Alachua had received a total of $147,710 in grants from Project Safe Grant and Broward has received approximately $420,000. The state began withholding Alachua’s funding on Aug. 28 which so far totals $13,429. The six remaining counties were also penalized but their funding totals were not readily available by press time.

The state commissioner said the federal grants served to “buy off school districts” and said the federal government was interfering with the state board’s responsibility to govern its educational system, which is in violation of the tenth amendment of the constitution.

“Every Floridian should be offended by the federal government’s interference in state education issue,” he said. “We will not be strong-armed by the federal government.”

Superintendents from each county were allowed five minutes to defend their policies. All eight superintendents argued their policies were in compliance and should not have sanctions imposed as they were following the law and serving students in the name of safety.

Orange County Superintendent Barbara Jenkins read her defending statement to the state board during the meeting and said, “the action was legal” and “the action was necessary” given the “alarming rise” of school-related COVID-19 cases during the August surge fueled by the contagious delta variant.”

Public comments were taken before the meeting began. A majority of the callers were from Brevard County saying the district was not in compliance and the parents complained they were removed from a board meeting earlier in the week, which they contend was a violation of Florida Sunshine Law and asked the board to investigate. Most asked for salaries to be withheld while one parent wanted them to take the consequences a step further.

“I would like to see the board remove the superintendent and the board members,” Catherine Delaney a parent of a Brevard County student said. “I want them held accountable; we don’t want lawbreakers on our school boards.”

Props ta her, and her parents.

well done.

What’s this got to do with California?

Weld County, Kolorado wanted to become part of Wyoming. I think we should give Laramie to Kolarado....their politics are the same! memtb

The Gestapo strikes again! Gotta love the political pigs. 😂

BOOM!

If that bothers you it should.

She's a heroine in a world full of sheep.

Let it be noted that Laramie is a college town

I'm proud of her more should follow her all around this country.

I'd have never guessed Wyoming had a whole school almost full of pussies. We're in eastern Washington and wouldn't bat an eye to that here.

It’s a city and a college town.....the worst of combinations! memtb

Wrong.

This time of year?
She needs some football playing friends on her side.
Unless the team totally blows, they won't kick them out.