Defiant parents reject public health guidance over mask mandates for youth

With young people in grades K-12 set to return to school in the coming weeks, mask mandates for schools where children are not yet eligible for vaccines have come under scrutiny. Many parents are vowing to defy mask mandates at schools across the country. "I don't want to be so afraid of dying that we stop living," said Pastor Ken Peters, a father of four in Lenore City, Tenn.

Video transcript

[CHANTING]

[CHEERING]

[SINGING]

- We're even going for the PTAs and HOAs!

[MUSIC PLAYING]

KEN PETERS: And my name is Pastor Ken Peters. And I'm from Lenoir City in the Knoxville area of Tennessee. I'm a big fan of this thing called freedom. And I think-- I don't think the federal government should mandate things. I don't think even state governors should mandate things.

I think it should be handled at the local level. I think each school district should make their own decisions. But more importantly, I think parents should make the decisions when it comes to their children. And parents are the number one authority in their children's lives.

KAVITA PATEL: We have data from last year for schools that were able to remain open even before we had vaccines, that measures such as masks combined with social distance and also avoiding large crowds were able to keep schools and daycares and camps open during the year. That data is now getting reinforced with accumulating data for schools that have been reopened over the last several weeks that the schools that have had mandatory mask mandates as well as mandatory staff vaccination requirements have had some of the lowest reported cases. It's not zero, but it's much lower than what we're seeing in states like Florida and some parts of Texas and other states where they have no mask requirements.

KEN PETERS: Some parents feel better with their kids wearing masks they should have the freedom to have their kids wear masks. And if masks are protective, then it's going to help them whether or not the other kid is wearing a mask, you would think. For those parents like myself that don't want to put these, you know, I call them face diapers or muzzles on my children, you know, I think we ought to have the freedom to take that risk. And, you know maybe it is riskier. I don't know. But to me there's a bigger risk when it comes to my kids' psychological health.

And I don't want to be so afraid of dying that we stop living. I want my kids to live a great life. Let me take that risk. I want to take that risk. I want to live my life. And I don't want to-- I don't want to play scared well I'm living. I only got one life to live.

KAVITA PATEL: What we know is that one of the largest pools of unvaccinated people are children. And we now also know that the Delta variant is efficient at being in both children and adults in high levels. So children can infect each other and infect adults, which wasn't necessarily the case a year ago. So you are naturally seeing higher numbers of infections, growing by 20% each week. And with those numbers, you're seeing more hospitalizations, and unfortunately more deaths. [MUSIC PLAYING]