ORLANDO, Fla. — Anger about face masks turned Orange County School Board meetings into tense affairs in recent months, with shouts of “Y’all are Nazis!” hurled at board members, a black pirate flag unfurled by a man at the speaker’s podium, and guns, knives and Tasers confiscated from those trying to enter the board room.
At other Central Florida school board meetings, crowds booed, heckled and shouted and police — now stationed in greater numbers in some board rooms — removed the most unruly from the chambers.
A Brevard County school board member made national news last week after describing publicly how protesters harassed her and told her she needed to “beg for mercy.”
