Parents in Mississippi are signing a petition demanding Republican Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves to ban Oxford School District’s indoor mask mandate that went into effect Monday.
Oxford School District superintendent Bradley Roberson overruled Saturday board’s 4-1 vote to make masks optional for students, prompting the parents to turn to the governor.
A parent advocacy group called “Mississippians for Mask Choice” then circulated an email slamming Reeves for staying “silent and passive relative to the incremental and systematic erosion of our personal and parental liberties” in the face of mask mandates, according to Fox News.
Thank you @paulgalloshow for having me on this morning to talk anout the problem with mask mandates. Let the parents decide- we know much better than any official what is best for our kids.
Mississippi Against Mask Mandates – Oxford, MS https://t.co/sDPJnd6vpF via @supertalk
— Mandy Gunasekara (@MississippiMG) August 3, 2021
The group, comprising Former Environmental Protection Agency chief of staff Mandy Gunasekara and other Mississippian parents, is calling on the governor to issue an executive order reversing the district’s mask mandate. (RELATED: Bay Area Counties Reinstate Indoor Mask Mandates)
“We are asking the Governor of the state to step up and protect the citizens of this state from local officials using COVID as a mechanism for control rather than figuring out the best, most informed path for protection,” Gunasekara told Fox News.
A Change.org petition posted online Saturday has garnered more than 850 signatures, with the petitioners eyeing 1,000 respondents and having set the deadline for Wednesday at 8 a.m.
