Maskless students in California said they were ‘barricaded’ inside their school’s gym with lunch tables propped against the door and temperatures turned down as they protested Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mask mandate.
A photo from one of the students at the Oakdale Joint Unified School District captioned, ‘Locking us in,’ shows the tables blocking the doors from the inside on Thursday. School staffers could be seen standing by on the outside.
The students claimed staff members turned down the thermostat to ‘freeze them out,’ according to Reopen California Schools and that it was only turned up when police arrived and they were allowed out.
However, Oakland Police said the temperatures were not low. A school officer had responded to the situation, and deemed it not a police matter.
A follow-up video on Reopen California School shows the maskless students marching in the streets on their way to the district headquarters in an apparent planned ‘protest’ as people in the streets cheered, ‘Let’s go, Oakdale.’
The students in the district said they have chosen to go out without masks to follow Newsom’s example after he appeared maskless at the NFC Championship Game last week at SoFi Stadium.
Oakdale Joint Unified Superintendent Dave Kline told the Modesto Bee that 375 students in the district did not wear masks on Wednesday, and that 344 refused on Thursday.
Oakdale High School freshman Nolan Harris told CBS 13 students were protesting the hypocrisy of Newsom, saying: ‘If they don’t follow by their own rules that they’re trying to force upon me, why should I follow them.’
Newsom said he only took his mask off momentarily during the game in order to take the photos, but he was pictured without a mask multiple times at the event.
Harris said the district separated the protesting students, putting them in the gym, but added that the number of angry students has grown.
‘By the end of the day, there was about a hundred kids in there,’ he said.
The Oakdale Joint Unified School District did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
Oakdale mom Melissa Goodman told CBS that she supported students’ decision to protest peacefully and said other parents were also in favor of the kids.
‘They don’t want to get in trouble, they don’t want to disrespect their teachers,’ said Goodman, whose son is a senior at Oakdale High School.
‘But they also want the right to share their smiles and breathe freely.’
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This is an excerpt from Daily Mail.
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