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PARKERSBURG -- The Wood County Board of Education adjourned only two minutes after the school board meeting started Tuesday evening, after a protest by local parents not putting on their masks inside a packed Bailey Board Room at Wood County Schools Central Office.
Board president Justin Raber started the meeting asking to make a motion "to enforce the laws of the state of West Virginia in the executive orders requiring individuals in a public space to be wearing a mask."
It was seconded by boardmember Rick Olcott, who attended over the phone, that all individuals present would have to wear a mask.
Resident Sean Keefe tried to go to the podium to protest the board's decision but was ordered by Raber to sit down. Keefe said he would not sit down while continuing to make his way to the podium until Raber announced that he was adjourning the meeting.
"When our lawful government meeting was being interrupted by someone that was not listening and not wanting to participate in the meeting pursuant to our procedures and the volatility that was present in the room," Raber said following the meeting. "I have to make sure the safety of our students, our staff and our board members and those present was our number one priority, which is why I adjourned the meeting."
After the board left the room, Keefe, who has attended the previous five board meetings in protest of masks and has grandchildren in the district, said to the room that forcing children in the schools to wear masks is causing more harm than good.
He said masks do not prevent the spread of the disease, cause mental harm as well and that wearing masks and receiving the COVID-19 vaccine should not be mandatory.
"I have five grandchildren in this school system, I've got a 6-year-old beautiful little angel that has to cover her face. She is not learning and understanding what teachers are saying. "In America, we are born free. We are free to listen to media, religion, politicians, educators we wish to be influenced by," Keefe said.
Kari Wilson, a family nurse practitioner and parent of a Wood County student, also agreed with Keefe, stating statistics in a cumulative research document compiled by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a conservative non-profit. The group is known for promoting scientifically discredited information to support their claims, according to reporting by the Washington Post and New York Times.
The next Board of Education meeting will be on 6 p.m. May 25.
Tyler Bennett can be reached at tbennett@newsandsentinel.com