A school nurse recently spoke at her district’s school board meeting to protest mask mandates for children, saying she can no longer work for a school that does not put its students first.
A nurse who worked at Five Hawks Elementary in the Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools district told her school board last week that she will not “harm the emotional, mental, or physical health and education of these children any longer.”
She spoke to roaring applause and cheering, stating that no one in the school’s administration “would stand up for [the children] and say, ‘enough is enough.’”
“Last year did nothing to help the physical, emotional, mental health, safety, or education of these children. It harmed and hurt them,” the nurse said. “We have done an injustice to our [Prior Lake-Savage] children.”
The woman said enforcing masks on children goes against her personal beliefs and morals, as well as her role as a nurse and a mother.
She noted that the “damage” masks have done to children’s well-being will “take years to fix,” in her opinion.
While she used to love working as a school nurse, the woman said, “I can no longer work for this school district knowing that the children were not their first priority.”
She shared that when she attempted to disclose her views to help the health of students, she was told to “censor [her] thoughts and feelings.”
The school made the children feel as though they were the problem and were to be blamed, she said.
“It pains me to make this decision of my resignation as the Five Hawks building nurse, but I can no longer enforce the school district’s policies of mask mandates, quarantines, and isolation of these Prior Lake-Savage children when I do not believe in them,” she stated.
She said she hopes the administration will “make the right choice” by letting parents decide what is best for their children in the next school year.
Gov. Tim Walz recently advised schools to mandate masks but lacks the authority to impose a statewide mandate without his emergency powers. This will leave the decision in the hands of local school districts.
The CDC currently recommends that anyone who is not fully vaccinated wear a mask in indoor public spaces.
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Rose Williams
Rose Williams is an assistant editor for Alpha News.
