New Virginia GOP Attorney General Jason Miyares says masks have created a mental health crisis among school-age kids.
"I mean, think about the mental health crisis as well that we're having on our kids," Miyares told Fox News' "Fox & Friends Weekend."
"Listen, we live in a pluralistic society, people are going to think differently," he added. "If you're a parent, you know what's best for you.
"And guess what? That's in the code of Virginia. That's the message I would give to these school boards is it's explicit in the code that in the law, parents have a fundamental right to the education upbringing of the children."
Gov. Glenn Youngkin's executive order grants parents the choice on whether to mask their children in the state's public school system, but school boards want the power to unilaterally decideso some are suing the state.
"All this is saying right now is about parental empowerment," Miyares said. "That's what Gov. Youngkin ran on. That was a big issue that I ran on as well. We're just following through on our campaign promises. We are proud to stand with parents and we're really hoping the school boards will get the message.
"We're now going into year 3 of this and we need to recognize the impact it's having on our children."
Masking a child should be the parent's choice because mass forced masking has a detrimental effect on school kids that school boards will not take responsibility for, says Miyares.
"If you're a parent and you want your child to wear a mask 6 or 7, 8 hours a day, that's great," he said. "That's your right. But recognize there are going to be other parents that come to a very different conclusion. And what's so tragic about all this is we're not talking about the kids."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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