By Tim StellohNBC
News
A Virginia woman was arrested Friday after she apparently threatened school board officials as they met to vote on whether or not to keep a mask mandate.
The woman, 42-year-old Amelia King, was accused of verbally threatening people inside the school as she was speaking during a Page County Public Schools Board public comment meeting Thursday, the Page County Police Department said. Luray in a statement.
"Good.
There will be no mask mandates,” King told board members after he ended his three-minute comment period.
“My children will not come to school on Monday with a mask on.
That is not going to happen and
I will bring every one of my firearms loaded and ready,
” he noted.
[No, masks do not affect children's development and learning]
Capture image of the school board meeting, which was shared live on Youtube by Page County, at the moment the mother speaks and warns that she will carry weapons to school, on January 20, 2022. Schools of the Page County / YouTube Channel
When a board member interrupted King again, pointing out that three minutes is the standard time for comment, he said, "
I'll see you all on Monday
."
King, who was released on $5,000 bail, did not respond to a message left Friday at a phone number listed under her name by NBC News, sister network of Noticias Telemundo.
But later, at Thursday's meeting, he
emailed an apology
to a board member saying he was "only speaking figuratively."
"In no way did I mean to imply 'all my guns loaded' as in real firearms, but all the resources I can muster to make sure my children attend school without a mask," the email said, according to a school board. who read the note aloud.
"My sincerest apologies for my poor choice of words," the woman added in her email.
Bo Cook, chief of the Luray Police Department, said King has also contacted police to apologize.
But
his comments "absolutely caused alarm in the public,"
he said, adding that other local authorities were also investigating the incident.
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In a joint statement Friday, the school district's superintendent and board president said King's comments "
go against everything we want to model for our students
" and "go against the very nature of how we, as a community, should interact with each other.”
"This type of behavior is not tolerated by our students, faculty, staff, nor will it be tolerated by parents or guests of our school division," the statement added.
During Thursday's meeting, school board members voted 4-2 to lift a mask mandate put in place by former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam last year, the Winchester Star reported.
[The CDC confirms that the vaccine booster is essential to avoid the most serious symptoms of omicron]
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The vote came after incumbent Governor Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order making
mask mandates optional
for kindergarten through twelfth grade (K-12).
The order goes into effect Monday.
Youngkin, a newly elected Republican, signed the executive order on his first day in office saying the decision to wear a mask was a “issue of personal freedom;
Parents should make that decision for their children.”