Dave Calus, the maskless dad and local parent, was forcibly removed from the Webster School Board meeting on Tuesday. This comes when the classroom mask requirement is in reassessment by the state’s governor. A video of the incident has been circulating online.
The ROC for Educational Freedom posted the video on their Facebook page. The video has received over a thousand shares igniting renewed anger for the COVID-19 school mandates.
In March, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she would reevaluate the mask requirement. According to a Twitter statement posted by the Webster Police Department Wednesday, the officers were not directly involved in the altercation. The situation was de-escalated with the help of school resource officers. The incident is under investigation by school security. Police said they would determine whether or not to file charges.
According to its website, serving about 8,100 students, the Webster Central School District is located outside of the city of Rochester. Newsweek reached out to the district to obtain a comment.
The district issued a statement to local TV station WHEC. According to the statement, after refusing to put on a mask three times, as mandated by the state, an unnamed individual was physically removed from the school board meeting.
“We strive to hold board of education meetings in public in order to inform the community of activities going on in our schools,” the district’s statement said. “Those meetings can only occur when everyone in attendance acts in a civil manner. We understand that individuals have strong feelings about masking.”
With the tagline “Webster, Where Life is Worth Getting Assaulted,” Calus spoke out on Kimberly’s Revolution podcast. Calus has three children. The youngest is still in school. He said the trouble was not the goal at the meeting. However, he did intend to speak to the school board in opposition to the school’s mandates which he noted are affecting children in “mental and emotional ways.”
“My intent was to go and speak on behalf of my son, who’s the last child I have in the district,” he said. “And express my concerns about the consistent, continuing, mask mandates that are not necessary for these children. They are not in a risk group. Diseases are not being spread at school.”
On the podcast, Calus said he was concerned vaccine mandates would result from the mask mandates.
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“I will not allow the state to think that they control my son’s body,” he said. “They don’t get to choose what they inject in his body. That’s his mom’s decision and my decision. That’s why I was there last night.”