Michelle Lujan Grisham, Democrat Governor of New Mexico, threatened to remove members of a school board if they don’t change their vote about COVID-19 mandates.
Near the end of July, the Floyd Municipal School board voted against a series of regulations including masks, social distancing, and body temperature checks.
The idea behind this was to make COVID regulations a choice for parents, teachers, and students.
The following day, the board received a letter from the Public Education Department threatening to remove members from their position if they did not rescind their vote in a public meeting.
New Mexico’s COVID practices state that all youth programs require masks and last week the state’s PED ordered for all teachers, administrators, and students to wear masks.
A failure by the board to provide written confirmation of a vote rescinding the offending course of action and/or adopting a course of action that conforms to the published health and safety requirements by noon on Tuesday, August 3, 2021, or any further violations of COVID-Safe Practices, could result in adverse licensure actions against licensed individuals, suspension of school board governance, and other applicable enforcement actions.
Letter from New Mexico PEd
The board held a meeting Monday night to decide whether to follow new guidelines or keep their current policies. Many administrators have expressed their frustration with Lujan Grisham’s mandates.
Before the CDC’s new guidelines that recommend everyone wear masks regardless of vaccination, other states like Texas and Utah banned mask mandates in schools.