Protest Organizer Wants Masks To Be A Choice
September 10, 2021 at 3:01 a.m.
Protest Organizer Wants Masks To Be A Choice
By David [email protected]
It was the second protest on Thursday as some Warsaw Community High School students and their supporters demonstrated Thursday morning at the school against the mask mandate the school board approved Tuesday, which starts today. Another protest and school walk-out was possible for today.
Thursday evening’s protest was organized by Hanna Hodge, 26.
“I’ve been working toward this movement since May of 2020 before school got out last year,” she said. “Really, it just boiled down to ... I believe God is calling me to be a voice as a mom.”
She said one day she noticed it didn’t feel right that she was dropping off her kid to a building that she wasn’t allowed to enter. A stranger walked her daughter into her first day of kindergarten.
“It wasn’t right. I got to a point where I was, ‘When are you going to draw a line? At what point are you going to trust your gut?’ So I took a leap of faith and started a group on Facebook, and I woke up the next day and had 50 members,” she said.
The group, called Unmask Our Children Now – Indiana, has around 1,700 members now. Originally, it was just for Warsaw but the following and interest in it caused it to grow Indiana-wide.
She spoke out at the Warsaw School Board meeting Tuesday.
“This has just been a week full of momentum and we’re seeing people kind of come out of the woodwork,” Hodge said, noting people from Wawasee, Concord, Tippecanoe Valley, Columbia City as well as Warsaw were at the march. “Really, it’s just been kind of me and my battle buddies.”
The main purpose of Unmask Our Children Now, she said, is to gather like-minded individuals and stay informed and educated on “what seems to be people being told multiple different things by multiple different schools within the same district. Our main goal is just to stay informed and be able to work together to unmask our children because it is our right to decide what goes in and on their bodies, how they breathe the air.”
Hodge said their main argument is “this is public school.” She is well aware of the risk every day that can occur of sending her children to school. “They can pick up one of the thousands of viruses that we’re surrounded by every single day. And if I were so scared as to think I believe everybody around me should be masked, I would homeschool my children like I am now.”
She withdrew her children from public school Wednesday because “of the events that unfolded at the board meeting and the predetermination of the voting. It was abundantly, abundantly clear that they had the decision made before” the vote, she said.
Hodge stated that teachers are coming to her anonymously, telling her about things going on in the schools.
“It’s kind of easy to keep going when you have so many people coming to you every day, just thanking you for really nothing. I’m just doing what everyone else is too scared to do. I’m just being the voice,” she said.
The school corporations often get direction from the state, which gets direction from the federal government. The schools then have to decide what to do with that direction and advice.
“I don’t think it’s the school board’s fault. I think (Indiana Gov. Eric) Holcomb has definitely given an ultimatum. But the thing is, his executive order states choice. We were given two options: We were given mask mandate, and this will follow suit; or you were given mask optional, and this will follow suit. The thing of it is, there’s so much money on the line, because they knew what they were signing up for when they applied for these funds. They knew what they were going to have to implement. And they’re not even willing to try when it’s causing blatant harm to our children, psychologically, mentally and physically,” she said.
Asked about parents who might disagree with her and who support the mask mandate, Hodge said she hasn’t ran into any. She feels like everywhere she goes, she’s in the majority.
Hodge said she would be satisfied if the school corporation went back to mask optional.
“I don’t want them to ban masks. I think this is America. I think people should have a choice. They should have a choice, absolutely. We’re not anti-mask, we’re just pro-choice,” she said.
Thursday’s march went from 5 to about 6 p.m.
Today, she planned to support all the parents with children who were walking out of schools. A few teachers, she said, told her students have been withdrawing from the schools “by the dozens.”
“Our main goal is to support them (today) during that walk-out,” she said. She hoped other parents will also keep their children out of school today in solidarity.
The walk-out at WCHS was planned for 10 a.m. today. She said students were being threatened by teachers and coaches, being told they couldn’t “exercise their civil liberties.” The students chose 10 a.m. If they were going to fight for their rights, Hodge said she was going to stand up with them as a mom.
Warsaw Community Schools Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert was contacted for a comment Thursday evening for a comment about the walk-out but he did not respond by press time. He released a statement Wednesday, which was published in Thursday’s Times-Union.
It was the second protest on Thursday as some Warsaw Community High School students and their supporters demonstrated Thursday morning at the school against the mask mandate the school board approved Tuesday, which starts today. Another protest and school walk-out was possible for today.
Thursday evening’s protest was organized by Hanna Hodge, 26.
“I’ve been working toward this movement since May of 2020 before school got out last year,” she said. “Really, it just boiled down to ... I believe God is calling me to be a voice as a mom.”
She said one day she noticed it didn’t feel right that she was dropping off her kid to a building that she wasn’t allowed to enter. A stranger walked her daughter into her first day of kindergarten.
“It wasn’t right. I got to a point where I was, ‘When are you going to draw a line? At what point are you going to trust your gut?’ So I took a leap of faith and started a group on Facebook, and I woke up the next day and had 50 members,” she said.
The group, called Unmask Our Children Now – Indiana, has around 1,700 members now. Originally, it was just for Warsaw but the following and interest in it caused it to grow Indiana-wide.
She spoke out at the Warsaw School Board meeting Tuesday.
“This has just been a week full of momentum and we’re seeing people kind of come out of the woodwork,” Hodge said, noting people from Wawasee, Concord, Tippecanoe Valley, Columbia City as well as Warsaw were at the march. “Really, it’s just been kind of me and my battle buddies.”
The main purpose of Unmask Our Children Now, she said, is to gather like-minded individuals and stay informed and educated on “what seems to be people being told multiple different things by multiple different schools within the same district. Our main goal is just to stay informed and be able to work together to unmask our children because it is our right to decide what goes in and on their bodies, how they breathe the air.”
Hodge said their main argument is “this is public school.” She is well aware of the risk every day that can occur of sending her children to school. “They can pick up one of the thousands of viruses that we’re surrounded by every single day. And if I were so scared as to think I believe everybody around me should be masked, I would homeschool my children like I am now.”
She withdrew her children from public school Wednesday because “of the events that unfolded at the board meeting and the predetermination of the voting. It was abundantly, abundantly clear that they had the decision made before” the vote, she said.
Hodge stated that teachers are coming to her anonymously, telling her about things going on in the schools.
“It’s kind of easy to keep going when you have so many people coming to you every day, just thanking you for really nothing. I’m just doing what everyone else is too scared to do. I’m just being the voice,” she said.
The school corporations often get direction from the state, which gets direction from the federal government. The schools then have to decide what to do with that direction and advice.
“I don’t think it’s the school board’s fault. I think (Indiana Gov. Eric) Holcomb has definitely given an ultimatum. But the thing is, his executive order states choice. We were given two options: We were given mask mandate, and this will follow suit; or you were given mask optional, and this will follow suit. The thing of it is, there’s so much money on the line, because they knew what they were signing up for when they applied for these funds. They knew what they were going to have to implement. And they’re not even willing to try when it’s causing blatant harm to our children, psychologically, mentally and physically,” she said.
Asked about parents who might disagree with her and who support the mask mandate, Hodge said she hasn’t ran into any. She feels like everywhere she goes, she’s in the majority.
Hodge said she would be satisfied if the school corporation went back to mask optional.
“I don’t want them to ban masks. I think this is America. I think people should have a choice. They should have a choice, absolutely. We’re not anti-mask, we’re just pro-choice,” she said.
Thursday’s march went from 5 to about 6 p.m.
Today, she planned to support all the parents with children who were walking out of schools. A few teachers, she said, told her students have been withdrawing from the schools “by the dozens.”
“Our main goal is to support them (today) during that walk-out,” she said. She hoped other parents will also keep their children out of school today in solidarity.
The walk-out at WCHS was planned for 10 a.m. today. She said students were being threatened by teachers and coaches, being told they couldn’t “exercise their civil liberties.” The students chose 10 a.m. If they were going to fight for their rights, Hodge said she was going to stand up with them as a mom.
Warsaw Community Schools Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert was contacted for a comment Thursday evening for a comment about the walk-out but he did not respond by press time. He released a statement Wednesday, which was published in Thursday’s Times-Union.
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