A father was filmed getting dragged out of a school board meeting after refusing to put on a face mask as shocked parents watched on.
Dave Calus is a New York dad of two who was taking part in Webster School Board meeting when he got into an argument with a security guard who approached him and demanded he wears his face mask.
According to the reports, the guard repeatedly asked the man, who attended the board meeting to speak out against the mask mandate in the school, to put on his facial covering. On three occasions, however, the man refused.
“Sir, you need to put a mask on,” the guard said, prompting the father to say: “Thank you.”
After losing his patience, the guard went on to drag the man’s chair towards the exit and yank him by his jacket. Still calm, Calus then sat back on his chair only for the guard to throw him off and remove him from the conference room with the help of his colleague.
The entire incident was witnessed by shocked parents and caught on camera.
“What are you doing?! What are you doing?! That’s assault!” the woman recording the altercation yelled. “Do you put your hands on our children, too?” another asked.
Following the alleged assault, Calus spoke out and insisted that he was sitting peacefully when the guard approached and confronted him.
“I want into the building without a mask on. I signed in and they said ‘you need to wear a mask.’ I signed in, they handed me a mask – I did not put the mask on – and I put it in my pocket,” he said.
“They were segregating masked and unmasked parents. The unmasked parents were going to have to sit in a classroom with a video monitoring watching and listening to the board meeting.”
Refusing to be segregated, Calus joined the masked parents in the main board room where he was once again told to mask up or leave.
“I took a mask from the person who handed it to me, looped it around my ear, walked into the room, and sat down and put the mask in my pocket,” he added.
“I had heard him going up to other people behind where I was sitting, telling other people ‘You need to wear a mask, you need to wear a mask, you need to wear a mask.’ So I knew it was just a matter of time before he got me.”
As the police have confirmed since the incident, officers were not involved in Calus’ removal. The case is currently under investigation, whereas it is yet to be determined whether charges are appropriate.
Speaking out following the incident was also Webster CSD who appeared to defend the security guard’s actions saying:
“There was an unfortunate incident during last night’s Webster CSD Board of Education meeting. Prior to entering last night’s meeting, visitors were reminded to wear masks in school buildings as is mandated by New York State.
“The individual whom you inquired about was asked to put his mask on three times and he refused. He was then asked to leave the meeting and refused to do so, resulting in Webster CSD security physically removing the individual from the meeting.”
The school district also insisted that they “will continue to keep our community informed of any changes to masking requirements in our schools” should the rules change in the near future.
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