The head of a California school district was caught swearing into a hot microphone during a school board meeting Tuesday, after a parent gave a speech knocking on classroom masks and COVID-19 vaccination mandates for students.
Self-described caring parent Lauren Ropoli has addressed the Los Alamitos Unified School Board of Education and talked about the issues she sees as being associated with enforcing the mask mandate on children.
She believes that any potential benefit far outweighs the risks.
In her fiery speech, she accused a board member of criticizing parents for expressing their legitimate concerns. She received applause when she said, “We are louder because we are the biggest advocates for our children.”
Her comment didn’t seem to match up well with Chairman Marlisse Davidson, who was picked up on a hot microphone saying, “F-you,” while clapping.
KTLA mentioned That Davidson issued an apology and said the audience should be “heard with respect”.
“I reaffirm my commitment to serve our community with dignity and integrity, and I hope they will accept my sincere apologies,” she said. She did not immediately respond to an email after hours from Fox News.
Ropoli told the station that Davidson should step down.
California has a statewide mask requirement that affects about 6.7 million students. This requirement is supported by the state’s largest teacher unions and the California Association of School Boards.
The argument for parents opposed to children’s vaccines is that they see the long-term side effects as unknown. They also say that these mandates infringe on their freedoms.
Opponents of these calls to protest insist that the mandates are based on science and that the only way out of the pandemic is to get vaccinated and wear masks.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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