Former Ohio Treasurer and candidate for U.S. Senate Josh Mandel was escorted out of a Lakota School Board meeting in Cincinnati on Monday after speaking out against mask mandates, Critical Race Theory, and gender ideology being pushed in schools.
“You are using kids as pawns in a political game,” Mandel said to school board members during the public meeting on Monday. “Here in the Lakota district and throughout the state of Ohio, children should not be forced to wear masks.”
Ohio Senate candidate Josh Mandel holding Constitution (Thomas Hern)
“On top of that, children should not be forced to learn about whether they can pick a gender or not pick a gender,” he added. “There are only two genders. Boys are boys, girls are girls.”
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Mandel then appeared to be interrupted, as police officers approached him.
“Is this a public meeting or is it not a public meeting?” the senate candidate asked, to which members of the audience stated it was a public meeting.
But when Mandel proceeded to speak, he was against interrupted as an officer appeared to inform him that he had to leave.
“I’m just here trying to stand up for the moms and dads,” Mandel said. “I’m just trying to stand up for kids.”
Moments later, police escorted the senate candidate from the school board meeting.
Mandel told Breitbart News the Lakota School Board’s policy states that either a resident or a resident’s designee may speak at meetings, adding that a resident had asked him to speak on behalf of her.
Nevertheless, “They kicked me out and muffled my voice against their own rules, and against the U.S. Constitution,” the Senate candidate said.
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Mandel explained that he was asked by a local mother to inform school board members that residents of the district wanted government schools to stop forcing their children to wear masks, and to stop teaching their children kids Critical Race Theory, as well as teaching them that they can pick their own gender.
When asked if the school board explained why they were removing him from the public meeting, despite being a resident’s designee, Mandel, said, “No, they didn’t.”
“My hunch is they kicked me out and did not allow me to speak because they were afraid of the truth,” Mandel told Breitbart News, adding that the truth is, “masks are unhealthy for kids, they are destroying kids’ psyches, and are making it much harder to socialize and to learn.”
“The truth about Critical Race Theory is that it’s a bunch of lies,” the senate candidate continued. “CRT divides kids down racial lines when we should be doing the exact opposite and teaching kids that skin color doesn’t matter.”
Critical Race Theory is an academic movement transpiring at schools across the country, teaching children that the United States is fundamentally racist, and that they must view every social interaction and person in terms of race or color in order to be “antiracist.”
“We should advance the cause of MLK, not CRT,” Mandel affirmed, referring to late Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, in which the civil rights activist said he dreamed of a day when his children “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
“Schools pushing CRT are perverting MLK’s words,” Mandel said. “And by doing so, they’re really stomping on his grave.”
As for mask mandates, the Senate candidate told Breitbart News that they are “a political tool for school officials and politicians to try to exert control over our kids,” adding that from the beginning, the debate about masks has not been about health or science, “it was about control.”
“I feel very strongly about this as a dad, and as a citizen,” Mandel said. “It is up to us, as parents, to decide what is best for our children.”
“In my lifetime, this is the most significant trampling of our freedom, liberties, and constitutional rights I have ever seen,” he added. “It starts at the top with Biden, and then it spreads through the faceless bureaucrats, like Fauci, and all his mini Fauci’s at the state level, and now it’s seeping into local school boards and classrooms.”
“And if we as parents and we as patriots allow this to happen, then they will only come after more and more of our freedoms and constitutional rights,” Mandel said.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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