Students were forced to leave a meeting of the Turlock school trustees because some adults present — including a trustee — would not wear a mask.
On video from Tuesday’s meeting of Turlock Unified School District trustees, Board President Lori Carlson announces that because students are participating, the gathering is considered a school setting and all people in the room must wear a face mask. About 15 seconds passes, and adults remain unmasked; Carlson then tells the student representatives on the board that they must leave.
Two middle-school students who were supposed to be honored for a “character counts” award were also told they could not be in the room.
With the students gone, the meeting qualified for the less strict COVID-19 rules for indoor public spaces, under which people who attest they are vaccinated can forgo the mask, Carlson told the Modesto Bee.
Trustee Jeffrey Cortinas, one of those unmasked, did not respond to the Bee’s question about his reason. He did say, by email, “I didn’t ask the district to remove the students and would have preferred they stayed.”
Both Cortinas and his wife, a fourth-grade teacher, have spoken publicly against mask mandates in the schools, according to the Turlock Journal.District Superintendent Dana Trevethan told the Bee the board will consider passing a resolution requiring masks so the student representatives can remain.
Students who weren’t present in an official capacity were allowed to stay at the meeting. One of them, an 11-year-old, cited the “Hunger Games” books in speaking against vaccine mandates during the public comment period, the Bee said.
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