A father of two was forcibly removed from a school board meeting this week after he refused to wear a mask.
On Tuesday night, Dave Calus, was sitting unmasked while watching a presentation at a board of education meeting in Webster, just east of Rochester, when the security guard reportedly asked him to put on a mask.
Calus reportedly replied with ‘thank you,’ but the guard kept at it: ‘No, you need to put your mask on right now.’
Video footage shows the father continuing to refuse a mask. The guard then grabs the back of his chair, pulling him backward across the floor.
The father turns to face the guard, who is pointing to the door, before sitting back down in the chair, video posted to the ROC for Educational Freedom Public Page shows.
Seemingly angered by this, the guard then grabs the chair and tips it over. He then pushes the father out of the room , causing other parents in attendance to yell.
One woman can be heard yelling: ‘What are you doing?! What you doing?! That’s assault!’
The startling incident took place one day before New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced an end to indoor mask mandates for businesses due to the drop in Covid-19 cases following the nationwide Omicron surge. The mandate will remain in effect in schools and other state-run facilities for at least the next month, when Hochul will reevaluate the mandate.
Calus was removed from the meeting and taken to urgent care for evaluation. He said Wednesday, speaking exclusively on Kimberly’s Revolution podcast. He said he was a ‘little sore’ after the incident but otherwise fine.
‘I went into the building without a mask on. I signed in and they said “you need to wear a mask,”‘ Calus said on the show. ‘I said “thank you.”‘
Upon signing in the father, who has a son in high school and another in college, took the mask and put it in his pocket.
Calus said he proceeded to the board room, where he was met by staff who told him that if he didn’t wear a mask, he would be placed in isolation during the meeting.
‘They were segregating masked and unmasked parents,’ he said. ‘The unmasked parents were going to have to sit in a classroom with a video monitoring watching and listening to the board meeting.’
Calus said he was put in the classroom but decided to join the main school board meeting, where he was once again told to put on a mask.
The father also claimed the security guard pushed another attendee who was unmasked.
‘I had heard him going up to other people behind where I was sitting, telling other people “You need to wear a mask, you need to wear a mask, you need to wear a mask,”‘ Calus said.
‘So I knew it was just a matter of time before he got me.’
Webster Police Department said in a Facebook post that their officers were not involved in the incident but they are conducting an investigation. After the investigation is complete, the department will determine whether ‘charges are appropriate’.
Calus said his main concern was his son, who he says only wears masks while in school.
‘They (the masks) are affecting kids in mental and emotional ways that are not detectable right now,’ he said, adding that the last two years of wearing masks have ‘taken his voice away from him.’
‘We need choice. We need a choice to send them to school with a mask and without a mask. We need the freedom to choose whether they get a vaccine or not.’
His views are shared with many across the country, as mask mandates in some public spaces are being lifted in several states, including New York.
On Wednesday, New York’s governor said the state was trending in the right direction, but stop short of lifting the mask mandate in public schools.
‘We are not where we were in early December. New Yorkers did the right thing to get through the winter surge, and we can now lift the statewide mask-or-vaccine requirement for indoor businesses starting tomorrow,’ she said, adding: ‘Counties, cities and businesses can still choose to require masks.’
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