Anti-maskers storm school board meeting — but did not have kids in the district: report

On Thursday, the Arizona Daily Starreported that a school board meeting for a Tucson-area district got out of hand as an angry crowd of anti-mask parents stormed the school district headquarters.

"The crowd — made up of parents and others who had no ties to the district or even Pima County — refused to wear masks inside of the building as required. Some protesters yelled at staff while pushing past them. A few were even armed. The goal was to get the district to drop its mask mandate. That's when Vail staff called the police," reported Danyelle Khmara and Clara Migoya Arizona. "When sheriff's deputies responded and couldn't get the growing crowd to leave, they recommended that the district adjourn the meeting, district staff said."

"Many in the crowd talked about children's mental health and the rise in teen suicide. The Vail School District had two students die by suicide this year," said the report. "Vail parents in attendance said their kids are depressed, uncomfortable, not able to play and getting headaches because of the mask requirement."

Of note, though, mask requirements are not the same thing as canceling in-person learning, and to not prevent kids from going to school.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, recently moved to cancel statewide mask mandates for public schools — but at the local level, many schools are opting to keep those requirements in place.

In recent months, anti-mask demonstrators have caused unrest around the country, both staging large scale protests and getting into fights with individual businesses and employees.