A school board member in Norman, Okla. has come under fire for the comments she made at Monday evening’s school board meeting.
Speaking to her fellow board members and a live audience, Norman Public Schools board member Linda Sexton said that children who attend school without wearing masks could “commit murder.”
A school board member in Norman, Oklahoma said kids who don't wear masks to school could "commit murder."
— Carly Atchison (@CarlyAtch) August 10, 2021
We're now at the point where some people feel it's acceptable to suggest young children are murderers for not wearing a mask.
Let that sink in. pic.twitter.com/OUE4Gb2GWl
“It’s just not okay for kids to commit murder by coming to school without a mask,” Sexton said. “And when it comes down to it, it’s possible. They will cause a death of another child because they come to school without a mask. That’s not okay.”
Sexton also said that it is “insane” to send children aged 5 to 11 to school unmasked, as they “don’t have a choice” about getting the Wuhan coronavirus vaccine. Children aged 12 and older are currently eligible for the vaccine.
The immense backlash prompted Sexton to issue an apology, in which she said that she “went too far in regards to people’s decisions not to wear a mask.”
Despite Sexton’s implication that the virus is killing maskless, unvaccinated children in droves, children account for less than 1 percent of all deaths in Oklahoma. Children aged 17 and under make up approximately 24 percent of Oklahoma’s total population, but account for just 13 percent of the state’s current cases — even with lower vaccination rates than every other age group.
Oklahoma school districts have been banned from imposing mask mandates for students since May, when Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) signed Senate Bill 658 ino law. School attendance is classified as a “government service” under SB 658, which citizens are entitled to regardless of masking status.
Stitt’s office issued a statement on Sexton’s comments, saying that “It is inexcusable for an elected school board member to call children potential murderers because they cannot or choose not to wear a mask.”
House Democrats in Oklahoma City have countered the governor by proposing legal challenges to SB 658. State Rep. Melissa Provenzano (D-Tulsa) introduced House Bill 2967. Colloquially known as the “Safe at School Act,” HB 2967 would repeal parts of SB 658 and return mask mandate autonomy to localities and school districts.
Comments like those made by Linda Sexton are why so many parents have taken matters into their own hands at school board meetings across the country this year. The forced masking of schoolchildren was one of many contentious issues at last month’s school board meeting in Rochester, Minn. And in Loudoun County, Va., the battle over progressive curriculum like critical race theory and related transgender issues continues to rage.
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