Meagan Downy justified to CNN on her daughter, Fiona, giving the middle finger to anti-mask protesters while she was riding the school bus.
"I want everyone just to be safe. And it’s hard because I was on hybrid learning for so long, it’s very stressful and very hard. But, I hope that we can say in school," Fiona told anchor John Berman, who then asked if her hand gesture made a difference.
"No, because they came to school yesterday. But I hope that things will change," Fiona said.
Downy said she got a text from Fiona explaining what had happened.
"And you know, honestly I understood her frustration and her anger. It’s been 18 months of this pandemic, which has been hard on all of us in different ways but especially I think on adolescents. And we all just want to get back to normal. And we’re not going to be able to do that unless we can put public health first," Downy said.
Berman noted it must have been an "odd parenting moment" to find out she was photographed giving the bird to protesters.
"You know, what else was she supposed to do in that moment? She was pretty fed up. You know this is not a situation where she could engage in constructive dialogue," Downy said. "You know, she’s forced to ride the bus every day to school and see these people. She was done. She expressed herself. So I’m proud of my daughter and I’m fine with that."
Fiona acknowledged there is not much the school can do about the protesters since they are off school property "so there’s nothing that I can really do just besides spreading the message to everyone else to wear their masks."
"Well, you spread a message. And I think they saw it and a lot of people are seeing it and I understand your frustration because it is a minority, this vocal minority aggressive protesting masks and sometimes you have to deliver a message back," Berman said approvingly.