Anti-masker parents are already gearing up to fight coronavirus mandates for the next school year, which doesn't start for nearly four months.

Palm Beach County school officials have no plans to drop their mask requirements in spite of a letter from the state's education commissioner urging districts to drop their mandates for the upcoming school year, and unhappy parents picketed against the decision, reported WPTV-TV.

"Why are we doing this to our children, why?" said one parent. "Give them back their childhood."

Education commissioner Richard Corcoran wrote that broad mask mandates "serve no remaining good at this point," despite reporting that shows 21 percent of new COVID-19 cases are among children under 16, who are not yet approved for the vaccines.

"I'm tired of people believing a lie that masks help you," said one mother, who apparently agrees with the education commissioner.

But school board member Dr. Debra Robinson told The Palm Beach Post it's premature to drop the mask mandates, even with efforts inside school buildings to limit social contacts among students, faculty and staff.

"The points [Corcoran] makes about inhibiting person-to-person interaction are true, but we are still in a pandemic," said Robinson, a retired physician. "We have more contagious variants exploding. We have some variants that show resistance to vaccines. I just said last week, 'We cannot let our guard down.'

The district will continue to follow guidelines for now, and 69 percent of the county's teachers favor keeping the mask mandate, according to their union, although 57 percent would like the option to allow fully vaccinated teachers to remove their masks while delivering instructions from a safe distance.

Despite the protests, school officials say it's much too early to make decisions for the 2021/2022 school year, which is scheduled to begin the second week in August.

"I would hope the viral load will have subsided in the community to such a degree I would feel comfortable," Robinson said. "But it's way too early to have that conversation -- way too early."

Derek Chauvin was convicted this week of murdering George Floyd -- and at least one of his fellow former Minneapolis police officers believes it's a "tragedy" that he's going to jail.

In an interview with Insider, the unnamed former Minneapolis cop complained how unfair he believes it is that Chauvin is going to prison after he was caught on video kneeling on the back of Floyd's neck until Floyd stopped breathing.

He also said that political pressure from mass protests made it impossible for Chauvin to get a fair trial.

"[The jury] was under tremendous pressure to 'make it right' for George Floyd," he told Insider. "When they came back that quick, I knew he was screwed. I knew it. I've never seen, in all my years of work, a jury come back that quick on such serious charges. Never."

The former officer also described Chauvin as a "sacrificial lamb" and said that "the whole thing is a tragedy."

He also worried about the message that the Chauvin conviction would send to other police around the country.

"It's the new trend now," he said. "They're sending cops to prison."

NASA's Perseverance rover keeps making history.

The six-wheeled robot has converted some carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere into oxygen, the first time this has happened on another planet, the space agency said Wednesday.

"This is a critical first step at converting carbon dioxide to oxygen on Mars," said Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA's space technology mission directorate.

The technology demonstration took place on April 20, and it's hoped future versions of the experimental instrument that was used could pave the way for future human exploration.

Not only can the process produce oxygen for future astronauts to breathe, but it could make hauling vast amounts of oxygen over from Earth to use as rocket propellant for the return journey unnecessary.

The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment -- or MOXIE -- is a golden box the size of a car battery, and is located inside the front right side of the rover.

Dubbed a "mechanical tree," it uses electricity and chemistry to split carbon dioxide molecules, which are made up of one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms.

It also produces carbon monoxide as a byproduct.

In its first run, MOXIE produced 5 grams of oxygen, equivalent to about 10 minutes of breathable oxygen for an astronaut carrying out normal activity.

MOXIE's engineers will now run more tests and try to step up its output. It is designed to be able to generate up to 10 grams of oxygen per hour.

Designed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MOXIE was built with heat-resistant materials like nickel alloy and designed to tolerate the searing temperatures of 1,470 degrees Fahrenheit (800 Celsius) required for it to run.

A thin gold coating ensures it doesn't radiate its heat and harm the rover.

MIT engineer Michael Hecht said a one ton version of MOXIE could produce the approximately 55,000 pounds (25 tons) of oxygen needed for a rocket to blast off from Mars.

Producing oxygen from Mars' 96 percent carbon dioxide atmosphere might be a more feasible option than extracting ice from under its surface then electrolyzing it to make oxygen.

Perseverance landed on the Red Planet on February 18 on a mission to search for signs for microbial life.

Its mini helicopter Ingenuity made history this week by achieving the first powered flight on another planet.

The rover itself has also directly recorded the sounds of Mars for the first time.