A 16-year-old Wyoming high school student was arrested for refusing to wear a mask, resulting in an hour-long school lockdown.
Grace Smith, a Laramie High School student, said in an interview with Wyoming Sen. Anthony Bouchard about her arrest that she had received three separate two-day suspensions. She was also allegedly fined $1,000 for trespassing after she refused to leave the school's premises.
"It makes me angry," Smith said. "It makes me feel unwanted by the school system. It makes me stressed out that I have to fight this battle as a 16-year-old. Right now, I should be playing sports and having fun. And instead, I’m fighting for the rights that were supposed to be won hundreds of years ago."
Bouchard applauded Smith for "standing against Covid Tyranny" and set up a fundraiser on GiveSendGo to help her with "the legal cost of defending her civil liberties and the civil liberties of other students in Wyoming who are enduring the same unlawful treatment." The campaign has raised more than $32,000 as of Sunday afternoon.
Interview with Grace, the 16 yr. old Honors student arrested at Laramie High School yesterday because she took a stand against wearing masks. This girl is a badass standing against Covid Tyranny. #StandWithGrace #tyranny @NeilWMcCabe @OANN https://t.co/v818SNkLA6
— ????Anthony Bouchard for Congress Against Cheney (@AnthonyBouchard) October 8, 2021
"You're what really everybody has to do, and I believe that," Bouchard told Smith in the interview. "I've seen from the beginning of this, everything has been about following orders, it's all about compliance, but I don't really see a real direction we're going in other than making people fit into a mold."
Laramie High School's mask mandate is in place until Oct. 15, at which time school officials will decide if it will be extended.