Billerica parents flock to school committee meeting ahead of official mask mandate announcement

BILLERICA, Mass. — Many Billerica parents who came to speak at a school committee meeting Tuesday are against masks.

“If the mask works and you’re wearing one, what do you care if I wear one or not,” said one parent during the public comment period.

“Why are we forcing them to wear masks and we don’t know if they work, if they don’t work,” said another parent.

Despite the fact that DESE voted nine to one to give the Education Commissioner the authority to make the mask ruling, he’s expected to do that on Wednesday. So, the vote Billerica expected tonight did not happen. Parents knew that but wanted their voices heard.

“Obviously I’m not happy about it, so it makes the whole Billerica discussion a moot point,” said Tim Moore, a Billerica parent with four children in the school system.

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He and many parents first protested anyway on the town common and came to the meeting to take a stand.

“At least I think we can make some noise and let them know that there’s a lot of us out here, and to at least let them know how we feel with our presents as opposed to just being online or reading emails,” Moore said.

And other parents were upset that DESE took the decision from their hands.

“We’re not in a State of Emergency. Billerica is in the green zone. I don’t think our numbers are to really be concerned about right now,” said Danielle Hadley, who is a Billerica parent.

However, one woman who is a teacher said during the public comment period that she has seen firsthand that masks do work.

“Masks are effective at lessening the spread of all viruses spread from respiratory droplets,” she said.

Frustrated by the DESE vote, many parents told Boston 25 that they will take their children out of public schools and place them in private schools or homeschool them instead.

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