The father of two reportedly refused to wear a face mask on a school board meeting on Tuesday. Video footage captured the moment when he was forcibly dragged out by a security guard. The father was first placed in a classroom with a video monitoring watching and listening to the board meeting. But, he decided that this isn’t going to work for him. So, he walked down to the main board room.
The father from New York, Dave Calus, was reportedly sitting in a chair as he watched a presentation at the School Board along other parents who were wearing masks as required by state mandate when a security guard approaches him.
One of the security guards approached the father and reportedly told him: “Sir, you need to put a mask on.” Calus replied with ‘thank you,’ only for the guard to persist: “No, you need to put your mask on right now.”
The father thanked the guard again. The security guard is then seen grabbing the back of the father’s chair, dragging him backward across the floor and yanking him out of his jacket, forcing him to stand.
The guard grabs the chair again, placing one hand under the seat and the other on the back as he tips the chair over. The guard then pushes Calus out of the room. The father was reportedly removed from the meeting and taken to urgent care for evaluation.
He said that he was a little sore after the incident. According to reports, this incident occurred one day before NY Governor Kathy Hochul announced she was letting the statewide indoor mask mandate.
Governor Hochul cited New York’s 93 percent drop in COVID-19 cases and declining hospitalization rates as the reasoning behind her decision.
But, the mask mandate will remain in effect at state-regulated facilities including schools, health care facilities, adult care facilities and nursing homes, correctional facilities, childcare centers, homeless shelters, domestic violence shelters and on public transit.
Shops, movie theaters, gyms/fitness centers and restaurants, are no longer ordered to require masks but can do so if they choose.
Dave Calus reportedly said: I want into the building without a mask on. I signed in and they said “you need to wear a mask,”‘ he recalled. ‘I said “thank you.” I signed in, they handed me a mask – I did not put the mask on – and I put it in my pocket.
They were segregating masked and unmasked parents. The unmasked parents were going to have to sit in a classroom with a video monitoring watching and listening to the board meeting.”
The father was then placed in the classroom. But, he decided that this isn’t going to work for him. So, he walked down to the main board room and was once again instructed to wear a mask.
Calus remained seated for 15 to 20 minutes before being approached by the security guard. Officers were not involved in the incident but they are conducting an investigation, the police department said.
Dave Calus also said: “My concern today, still – as it was last June when I spoke at the board meeting – is the consistent mask mandates in the schools. They are effecting the kids in mental and emotional ways that are … not detectable right now.
I am absolutely an advocate for my son. The mask mandates are the precursor to allowing the state and the Department of Health to mandate vaccines on kids in the schools. We need choice.
We need a choice to send them to school with a mask and without a mask. We need the freedom to choose whether they get a vaccine or not.”
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky released the following statement:
“Right now our CDC guidance has not changed. We continue to endorse universal masking in schools. We owe it to our children to make sure that they can safely stay in school. Right now, that includes masking. We’ve seen outbreaks that have occurred in communities where students were not masked in schools and had to close.”