A Wyoming high school student was reportedly handcuffed and forcibly escorted out of school after she refused to wear a surgical facemask per school rules.
According to the Sioux City Journal, 16-year-old Grace Smith had already been suspended twice for failing to comply with the school’s facemask mandate, which requires students to don a surgical mask for the duration of their time in the building each day. In addition to being suspended, Smith said she's faced bullying and harassment from other students and even some faculty, claiming that at one point a teacher tried to forcibly put a mask on her face.
Then, last Thursday, her third refusal forced a 90-minute school lockdown after Smith refused to leave the school building for not wearing a mask, insisting that she has a right to a public education and claiming that her constitutional rights had been violated.
Finally, Smith was handcuffed and taken down to the local police station before finally being released.
This is Grace Smith.
— Michael Austin (@mikeswriting) October 11, 2021
Grace is a 16-year-old junior at Laramie High School who was arrested and removed from school in handcuffs.
Her crime? Not wearing a surgical mask. pic.twitter.com/jze8euEUAH
According to Albany County School District No. 1’s mandate, students who refuse to wear a face covering while inside a district building face a two-day suspension and a misdemeanor for trespassing for each offense.
The Sioux City Journal reports that school district spokesman Sean O’Sullivan confirmed the lockdown wasn’t in response to an actual physical threat from Smith, but rather to “prevent further interruptions to academic learning.”
From a 16-year-old girl whose “crime” was refusing to slap a piece of fabric over her nose and mouth for a full seven hours in a taxpayer-funded building to protect against a virus with a 99.5% survival rate and for which there is a supposedly effective vaccine readily available to the public.