A California teacher, who was placed on paid leave, and a high school student are speaking out against the state's stringent COVID-related mandates after he decided to teach his class without a mask, participating in the school's student-led "No Mandate Monday."
choose to want to engage in the protest which is what i chose to do. i took it a step further by removing my mask myself. that was my own decision and i understood the consequences going into it. carley: lexi, why do you have an issue with wearing a mask? i was reading something that you said about how you think it s fine if other students want to wear one but you don t think it should be forced on you? yeah. i just don t personally like it. i don t think that it really anything in my personal opinion. beforehand, i was testing the waters, i was like i ll put it under my nose and after that i m going to put be it under my lip and after that i put it under my chin and at that point i was like why am i wearing it if it s acceptable to wear it under my chin so i took it off he completely. carley: you were put on paid leave. would you say the district s hands are tied because this is a state rule, right?
reached out to us and from there the protest was kind of made. we had a meeting and then it happened on monday and went from a small amount of kids to a large amount. carley: are these your friends that aren t wearing masks or are they also students you don t know? some of them are my friends, yeah, but most of them are a lot of kids that i don t know. carley: so what happens on mondays when you choose not to wear a mask, lexi? do you get to be with the other kids or what happens? how does the school handle that? you get to be with other kids who aren t wearing a mask, you go to a noncompliance room where there s no instruction and in some cases they take away your food from you. so that s kind of fun. carley: michael, you chose to support the protest. how did the school district respond? well, they responded by putting me where i am today which is on administrative leave and really not supporting my personal feeling that we should be able to support students who
that s the common excuse we have. we have to get past whether you re a teacher or administrator, we re complicit in continuing to agree and go on with indefinite mask mandates, the vaccine mandate and the common excuse that we have to do what the state wants doesn t hold up anymore many we need to unite with people that are like minded and say no no, to stand up to say no to the mandates in order for them to stop. if we enough that stand up and do that and put it on the line, we can can win. we ve seen it with the brave bre southwest high pilots. we have some sheriffs say they re not going to enforce mandates. it s time for people to find folks that are like minded and learn the meaning of the word no. carley: i think it s about the freedom of choice, your and lexi s message are about that. if you want to wear a mask, but
not everybody will feel and think the same way. why would governor newsom and some in the district disagree with that? yeah, i think they want us to simply move in unison. california is the first state in the country that s chosen to threaten all the way down to children as young as 5 years old, what that they ll lose their education if they don t take the vaccine and so they put parents in this compromised position where they have to make this choice. it s essentially blackmail is what it is or he coercion. i don t know if they re trying to be trend setters or whatever they re trying to do. they crossed the line when it comes to our kids. i think people that weren t awake prior are you awake now and it s time for people to stand up at this point and no longer comply. carley: it may shape a whole governor s race in virginia. michael, lexi, thank you so much for joining us this morning. we appreciate it. no problem, thank you.