Angry locals threatened to zip-tie elementary school principal over COVID-19 protocols: police

On Thursday, KVOA reported that police responded to an incident at Mesquite Elementary School in Tucson, Arizona after a dispute over COVID-19 safety protocols led to protesters threatening to zip-tie the principal and make a citizen's arrest.

The trouble started when a Mesquite student was asked to quarantine after coming into close contact with someone who had contracted the novel coronavirus.

However, this apparently angered the child's parents and other local residents, who moved to aggressively confront the school's principal.

"Three individuals and the child involved drove over to the school in order to protest the decision," reports KVOA. "The three individuals were later identified as one of the child's parents, another community member and a local business owner, who live-streamed the confrontation over his business' Instagram account. Over the Instagram live, the business owner reportedly shared his discontent over the situation and threatened to use zip ties to arrest the principal of Mesquite Elementary School. The zip ties could also be seen in the video."

The three individuals eventually dispersed by the time Tuscon police arrived on the scene.

In recent months, as the highly infectious Delta variant of COVID-19 has caused a resurgence of infections, school openings have been threatened, and controversies have flared up around whether to impose mask mandates.

In some states, like Florida and Texas, governors have outright sought to block mask mandates at the local level, which has led to legal battles. Meanwhile in Arizona itself, Republican Gov. Doug Ducey has tried to earmark federal COVID-19 relief only for schools that do not mandate masks, which the Biden administration has warned may be illegal.