mask protest ct
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About 20 anti-mask protesters confronted top state officials at an annual back-to-school event Wednesday in a Cheshire elementary school, abruptly shutting down the discussion, with at least one protester heckling Gov. Ned Lamont right to his vehicle.

The event was billed as a round table discussion at Highland Elementary School with a group of top state education and public health officials to address the start of the 2021-22 school year.

The meeting was supposed to focus on ways to safely maintain in-person instruction for students and faculty amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The protesters grumbled through the first half-hour, holding anti-mask signs and allegedly calling out Dr. Deidre Gifford, acting commissioner of the state Department of Public Health, but stayed in their seats in the cafeteria.


Witnesses said that about a half-hour into the discussion, the confrontation escalated and the event, featuring Lamont, state Department of Education Commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker and other education and health officials from throughout the state, was abandoned. At least one protester singled out Lamont, who was escorted out of the building by his state police security detail.

One witness said the protester allegedly shoved one of the security detail and went up to the window of Lamont's car.

Later in the afternoon, at a Hartford vaccination center, Lamont said health and education professionals have the best interests of school children and their families at heart. He did wonder about the role models displayed in the loud, expletive-laced confrontations.

"I was surprised to see young mothers with two 7-year-olds, one in either hand, shouting vulgarities and being as rude as they were," Lamont told reporters, admitting some shock. "We're all sitting there. We're trying to keep their kids safe. We're trying to do it in the best way we can possible. It's not Connecticut."


Comment: Citizens don't need or ask their government to "keep them safe." That's not their job and it's certainly their right to force children to wear masks in schools when that is the decision of the parents. Again we see the perils of the nanny state, people want protection but they inevitably get is fewer freedoms and liberties.


Lamont said he has received support from academic professionals for his order, which requires all school children and staff to wear masks until at least Sept. 30.

"There's no kid under the age of 12 who's been vaccinated and it's really important to keep these kids safe," Lamont said. "So every superintendent that was there at the roundtable said 'Thank you for stepping up and making sure that our kids can be safe in the classroom, so that Connecticut will not be like Florida.' They're in the classroom. We don't have to quarantine. We don't have to go home. They can keep learning and they can keep playing football."

About 40 minutes after the discussion started, it abruptly ended when the group of protesters became louder.


Cheshire Police Chief Neil Dryfe said the crowd of about 20 protesters dispersed once the governor left and no arrests were made.

"I received a text from a town official who was in attendance, saying that things were getting a little heated. By the time I walked to the school, which is right behind the police station, the governor was in his car and pulling away from the building," Dryfe said.

"There were no complaints made by anyone in attendance and the CPD took no action of any kind against anyone present. Once the governor left, the crowd of approximately 20 people dispersed."

Throughout the first half-hour, calls could be heard from the back of the room, asking panelists, who had microphones, to to speak louder. As Gifford spoke about close contact and COVID quarantine procedures, the crowd became more disruptive.

"If I could ask that we could show a little decorum," said the event's moderator, Jeff Solan, the superintendent of Cheshire Public Schools.

Solan wrapped up his questions and turned the discussion over to the media for questions. About 40 minutes into the meeting, Solin brought the event to a close as protesters' shouts grew louder.

"We all kind of recognized there wasn't going to be a good, productive conversation at that point," said Kate Dias, president of the Connecticut Education Association, the state's largest teachers union.

When the round table ended, Dias said she spoke with one of the protesters, who expressed distrust in the COVID-19 vaccines. The union president said she explained to the individual that while she did not agree, she could hear her fears and concerns.

Before the meeting spiraled, Gifford tried to address questions about vaccine and mask mandates.

Asked what happens after Lamont's executive order expires on Sept. 30, the commissioner said her department is monitoring other states where school districts have already reopened.

"We're seeing that in schools where masks were not required at the beginning of the school year, and there was lots of COVID in the community, we've seen very significant disruptions to in-person learning," she said.

Gifford said the state's priority is to keep kids in classrooms and "adjust mitigation strategies as the conditions merit."