GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The Kent County Board of Commissioners scheduled a work session specifically for public comment on the face mask mandate for students in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade.
The meeting lasted more than six hours at the DeVos Place Steelcase Ballroom, and there were multiple times throughout the day where the audience had to be reminded to calm down.
Micah Jones, an incoming senior at Grand River Preparatory School, was one of the few at the meeting in favor of the mask mandate.
"You are made to wear a shirt and shoes in public, but a mask is too much?" Jones said at the podium. "It seems many of us only care about democracy if it benefits ourselves."
Jones tells 13 ON YOUR SIDE that she's disappointed with how the crowd behaved.
"These two children I babysit act better than the adults that I've seen in this room," she says.
Others at the meeting passionately called for an end to the mask mandate.
"This is our country and if we don't do something about freedom of choice, we won't have it!" one woman said at the podium.
"The simple thing is you don't comply, you do not comply," one man said at the podium.
Heckling wasn't just directed at the speakers, but also at Health Officer Dr. Adam London. His statement to the crowd and answers to commissioners' questions were met with boos.
"Each one of you will want us to be quiet and listen," Vice Chair Stan Stek said at the meeting.
Both the Chair and Vice Chair of the Board say they expected to see this passion during the meeting, where everyone was allowed two minutes to speak at the podium.
"They think that local government is their best source of bringing the passion and that concern, it's going to happen," Stek says. "And so I think you just have to let them express themselves within some degree."
"People are upset, and we represent them," Chair Mandy Bolter says. "We're their representatives, and we needed to hear from them."
Jones say she thinks some parents are blowing this issue up, and she says she wants a fair shot to stay in person for her senior year.
"Even if I'm wearing a mask, you know, it doesn't change anything. It's just another part of my daily routine," she says.
The point of the meeting was for the Board of Commissioners to take notes during public comment for the health department. Only the health officer has the authority to make changes to the mask mandate.
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