EXCLUSIVE: School Walkout Organizer Tells Us Why They Protested Shenandoah, Virginia Mask Mandates on First Full Week, Feels They Have No Voice

Monday, students returned to their first full week of school in Shenandoah County, Virginia. The students, along with everyone else who walks through the doors of the school have to be masked. The first two days of school, last Thursday and Friday, the students were able to come to school with or without a mask.

Students of Shenandoah County organized protests Monday morning in response to the schools now mandating masks. At four of the county’s schools, high school students participated in the protest. Central, Triplett Tech, Mountain View, and Strasburg all had students who participated.

Three sophomores from Central, Russell Allen, Noah Teets, and Destiny Ogle took leadership for the walkout at Central.

We spoke with Noah Teets earlier today after the protest. He told us that students and parents feel like they have no voice in this matter. “They are trying to silence us, and override us, and tell us that our opinion doesn’t matter. We wanted to be heard.” Noah also said that they were told by school leadership they needed to take it to Richmond.

According to Teets, the walkout at Strasburg was stimied, as there was a police lockdown there, that would not allow the students to leave the building. It appears however that a few of them eventually were able to leave the building after parents complained about locking them in.

According to Northern Virginia Daily, Superintendent Melody Sheppard was at Strasburg Monday morning, while students protested the mask mandate, and there were a handful of parents there as well. Superintendent Sheppard also reported that three students at Triplett Tech participated in the protest.

Mountain View Principal Mike Dorman told NVD that approximately 25 to 30 students participated in the protest and that by lunchtime students were wearing their masks and everything was going smoothly.

NVD also reported that Central had the largest amount of students protest with a tent and music set up in the parking lot. The protesters at Central were the only ones who did not return back to class after walking out in protest.

It has been reported that Superintendent Sheppard says she supports the student who protested, however, the students feel like they have not had any voice in the matter and that the protests caught her off guard, to say the least.

Last week, Governor Ralph Northam held a press briefing on Covid-19 in which he addressed a law Virginia legislators passed in March of this year. The law, according to Northam, says the schools will hold in-person learning five days a week, and the schools will follow CDC guidelines.

Northam stated that schools that do not follow the CDC guidelines should “consult their legal counsel”, in what appears as a veiled threat. Without saying the words “mask mandate” Northam basically imposed the mandate.

A reporter at the press briefing asked about Northam’s interpretation of the law, bringing up that others may interpret it differently, asking also “why not just mandate?” Northam responded by going over the law again and stating, “It’s the law of the Commonwealth of Virginia”.

This may be why school leadership told the students they need to take it to Richmond, as it appears their hands are tied with the law that was passed in March. The students are frustrated as the school year started with masks strongly recommended and now they are at the whims of the CDC with this mandate.

UPDATE: 6:00 EST

Below is an email sent out to parents of Shenandoah County Public Schools.