California school board president caught on mic saying ‘f**k you’ to parent concerned about vaccines, masks for children
Once the comment went public, there were calls for Marlys Davidson to resign.
The president of a California district board of education is under fire after she was caught on mic swearing obscenities during a meeting where a parent raised concerns about COVID-19 vaccine and mask mandates.
Marlys Davidson, president of the Los Alamitos Unified School District Board of Education, leveled the comments toward parent Lauren Roupoli, who raised concerns over mandates placed on students requiring them to wear masks in class during a board meeting, reports Fox News.
In her passionate speech, Roupoli claimed that one of the board members was silencing the voices of parents like her, who were merely sharing concerns about the decision to give the COVID-19 vaccine to children.
“We are vocal because we are our children’s biggest advocates,” she declared as others in attendance applauded.
Apparently, the mother’s monologue didn’t sit well with Davidson, whose “hot” mic picked up her responding with “F— you,” as the audience clapped.
Once the comment was made public, there were calls for Davidson — who joined the Los Alamitos Unified School District Board in 2018 and who has two children — to resign. She issued an apology acknowledging that the public must be “heard with respect.”
“I reaffirm my commitment to serve our community with dignity and integrity, and I hope they will accept my sincere apology,” she said in the statement.
Despite the mea culpta, Roupoli later told local media that Davidson should still step down.
“After her true colors showed last night, there’s no taking that back,” she said.
The kids are not alright
Kid-size doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine may be getting closer as government advisers began deliberating Tuesday on whether there’s enough evidence that the shots are safe and effective for five- to 11-year-olds.
A study of elementary schoolchildren found the Pfizer shots are nearly 91 percent effective at preventing symptomatic infection, even though the children received just a third of the dose given to teens and adults.
In a preliminary analysis last week, Food and Drug Administration reviewers said that protection would “clearly outweigh” the risk of a very rare side effect in almost all scenarios of the pandemic. Now FDA’s advisers are combing through that data to see if they agree.
If the FDA authorizes the kid-size doses, there’s still another step: Next week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will have to decide whether to recommend the shots and which youngsters should get them.
While children are at lower risk of severe COVID-19 than older people, 5- to 11-year-olds still face substantial illness, including over 8,300 hospitalizations — about a third of which require intensive care — and nearly 100 deaths, FDA vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks told the advisory panel.
“Infections have caused many school closures and disrupted the education and socialization of children,” he said.
“I want to acknowledge the fact that there are strong feelings” among the public for and against child vaccinations, Marks added, noting that the discussion would be on scientific data “not about vaccine mandates, which are left to other entities outside of FDA.”
This story contains additional reporting from the Associated Press.
Have you subscribed to theGrio’s new podcast “Acting Up”? Download our newest episodes now! TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Roku. Download theGrio today!
More About:Featured
You Might Like
