Skip to main content

It’s been 18 months since “15 days to slow the spread,” and we’ve reached the point where school board meetings are erupting over mask mandates for children. There is simply no time left for persuasion and civil debate anymore.

Reason and logic are no longer of any use in safeguarding the most fundamental norms of our once free society. Recent flashpoints in our long-running culture war prove this is true.

It’s a frightening realization, but the sooner the sane people realize this, the sooner we can begin the necessary work of pushing through this encroaching tyranny and build institutions that will carry freedom forward.

School board meetings have exploded over indoctrination agendas spanning from Critical Race Theory to the sexualization of children at the youngest of ages. But for our purposes, let’s just take the mask mandates being pushed by districts nationwide.

Hundreds of parents have passionately and gracefully stood up to petty tyrants in front of their neighbors, communities, as well as the whole wide world in some cases as the meetings are often livestreamed.

The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh was bound to get more views when he participated in one public comment session, but he also earned his viral moment based on the merits of his words.

He made sound points to the Metro Nashville Public Schools, arguing the statistically zero risk of death by Covid for children, while also pointing out the much deadlier flu never prompted anyone to mask children before.

Walsh even accused the board of “child abuse” for forcing kids to wear “muzzles like rabid dogs.” But he knew none of that would sink in.

“You’re satisfied to place this burden on children anyway, and why?” Walsh wrapped up, “It’s not to keep them safe. They are safe. It’s not to keep the adults safe. They can all get vaccinated if they want. No, you do it to make yourselves feel better and to protect yourselves politically.”

“It’s a disgrace, and you should all be ashamed,” he added.

Walsh was exactly right that these cowardly, Fauci-possessed bureaucrats do this to kids for their own benefit. Not only will no amount of public shame alter their incentives, in fact the indignant outrage from conservatives only seems to fuel their megalomania.

I’m not overstating the crisis here. These are power mad people who first seek to run our children’s lives and make them as miserable as possible.

Take teacher Scott Grigoletto of Glenbard North High School in Carol Stream, Illinois, who was just caught calling a student “a piece of s***” for letting his mask fall below his nose after Grigoletto walked away.

Not all teachers are so open about their disdain for students. Teacher Jennifer Kizer Tift was caught on social media attending a concert unmasked along with 10,000 other people just one day after pushing for all her students to be masked. She told the Red Wing, Minnesota School Board how “sad” and “angry” she was that “personal freedom was more important than our community responsibility and the need to take care of one another.”

Imagine having the mentality of teachers like these. It’s one thing when it’s coming from the federal level, as it is now with the US Department of Education filing civil rights investigations into red states that don’t allow mask mandates in schools.

So, what to do about this? Maybe in some cases a letter campaign, petition, or protest is worth a try, but those instances must be few and far between. They likely amount to stall tactics at best or a waste of time and energy at worst.

Consider thinking outside the box like whoever the person or people were that made the Henrico School Board in Virginia go viral. To be fair, this board was only recommending masks and not mandating them, but the video still offers a lesson in the correct amount of respect to pay these busybody panels.  

For even better results, undermine these oppressive measures by countering with other medical opinions.

A Florida chiropractor set a wonderful example by writing exemption letters for some 500 students to get out of any mask requirements.

And if at all possible, do the heroic thing and liberate your children from these government schools, even the charter ones, where the woke/Facui agenda has taken over. If you don’t have kids, find a way to support those families who are stuck in these situations. Homeschooling is a community effort now more than ever.

A recent study found that “children born during the pandemic have significantly reduced verbal, motor, and overall cognitive performance” due to “closed businesses, daycares, schools, playgrounds, and limited child learning and typical activities.” 

Don’t let these years pass by without decisive actions that defend the innocence of children and the joys of a healthy, growing childhood. 

Taking our country back must no longer be a slogan only. It won’t be achieved by begging the elite administrators of our broken educational system to let our children breathe freely. Taking the country back now means taking our children back, which should be done even if it means embracing the discomforting reality of the culture war being fought over them.

Gavin Wax

Gavin M. Wax is a New York-based conservative political activist, commentator, columnist, and operative. He is the 76th President of the New York Young Republican Club and co-author of the 'The Emerging Populist Majority.' You can follow him on X at @GavinWax.