LINWOOD, NJ – Madison McBride is a straight-A student at Bellhaven Avenue Middle School in Linwood and after a weekend of not wearing a mask indoors or outdoors, she decided it was time to stop wearing it to school too. The science behind the whole thing doesn’t make sense to millions of adults, much less a middle school student.
“She spent all weekend going into public places and doing everything indoors and outdoors maskless, but when we told her she still had to wear a mask and stay in her plastic box at school she was very upset,” said dad David McBride. “Upset because it doesn’t make any logical sense to her and upset because she is tired of suffering in the lockdown environment still in place at her school with rules that don’t match the society around her.”
Knowing she would probably face punishment for not wearing the mast to school, she did what she felt was the right thing to do as calls come from medical professionals and politicians nationwide to end mask mandates in public schools.
Students are attending public schools without masks in states across the country. In some jurisdictions masking is optional, but in New Jersey, it’s mandatory and probably will be well into the 2021-22 school year.
Like many other students in New Jersey’s public schools, Madison wears her facemask for up to 7 hours each day. The CDC and even the World Health Organization advises against the prolonged wearing of a single facemask due to moisture buildup, sweat, humidity and possibly bacteria build up within the mask itself.
“She was very scared to show up today with no mask on,” he dead said. “She was petrified to get in trouble and have to go to the principal’s office, but on her own, decided to go through with it anyway because that’s how bad it is for her to sit in a plastic box with a mask on for 7 hours a day!”
Her dad said he supports her decision to protest the in-school mask mandate and didn’t worry that she got sent home.
“She always follows the rules so it must be a really difficult learning environment if my daughter who hates getting in trouble and is petrified of being sent to the principal office went through with it,” he said. “She loves going to school, but today stood up for what she believed in and I was more than happy to stop everything I was doing to pick her up.”
Hirsh Singh, who is running for Governor of New Jersey also lives in Linwood and said he too supports Madison’s civil protest.
“This insanity must stop,” Singh said. “We have to unmask our children now. Forcing a child to wear a facemask to be educated is nothing less than child abuse. If elected Governor, I will end the public school mask mandate.”