Despite inclement weather, 60 stood letting their voices be heard
By the end of the rally, which lasted beyond one hour, more than 60 stood along the West End Avenue sidewalk, supported by many motorists who responded to a “Honk for Freedom” sign.
Kimberlie Parks and Andrea Pfisterer, whose children attend Farragut schools, led the peaceful protest, which was just another step in their efforts to rally parents in helping overturn the federal mask mandate Knox County Schools has been under since September.
“Even if there are opposing viewpoints toward us today, we are still to be respectful,” Pfisterer said.
“It is their choice to wear masks, and we stand for their right in making those decisions for their children,” she added.
“We just want families to be able to choose what they believe is right,” Knoxville resident Amy Klicka said during the protest. “The right to choose has been taken away from us for too long.
“Also, at this point, it’s not scientifically justified to continue” the mandate.
Melissa Dockins, who works for Knox County Schools’ afterschool program, also was at Friday’s rally.
“It just breaks my heart, every day, to have to keep those children in masks after they have been in them all day,” she said. “I get them until 6 — they have to wear masks all day, every day, from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., and I still have to enforce it.”
Parks said other peaceful protests likely would be held.
“Right now, we are one of the only school districts in the country under a federal mask mandate,” she said.
The pair were among a full room of parents also opposing the continued masking who appeared at last week’s Knox County Commission meeting. While the Commission ultimately approved a request allowing Knox County’s Board of Education to hire outside counsel to assist Knox County Law director David Buuck in fighting the lawsuit, it remains unclear what can or will be done to end it.
Knox County students began the 2021-22 school year under a mask optional policy, but have been under a federal mask mandate since the end of September, when Senior U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer, 3rd District of Tennessee, ruled in favor of four plaintiffs of medically compromised children alleging the lack of COVID-19 precautions did not accommodate their children as required under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
“Our kids are being forced to use their bodies as ADA accommodations and have been entered into a contract involuntarily,” Pfisterer said. “The law department refuses to do anything, even though we have done research for them.
“We need outside representation to take care of this situation, and we are fighting every way we know how,” she added.
“If not me, then who?”
