New Mexico School Board Suspended Over Mask Mandate

The dictatorship of Gov. "Malevolent Michelle" Lujan Grisham has suspended the Floyd school board for voting to not comply with her mask mandate.

The Santa Fe New Mexican reported:

ALBUQUERQUE — The Floyd school board was suspended by the state Public Education Department on Wednesday for not going along with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s mask mandate for children as schools prepare for classes to resume this month and COVID-19 cases continue to rise again.

The five-member Floyd school board voted last week to make masks and social distancing optional and reaffirmed the decision in another vote Monday despite warnings from state officials that they could face suspension or other enforcement actions.

The district’s superintendent has been ordered to report directly to Public Education Secretary Ryan Stewart.

Stewart said in a memo to the board members that the state agency has a responsibility to ensure a safe and healthy environment for all staff and students. 

House Republican Leader Jim Townsend of Artesia called the state’s move unfortunate given that New Mexico is just days away from schools reopening.

“Instead of politicizing and headline grabbing, I sure wish that the governor and PED would have implemented a serious plan to address the learning gap and the myriad of other issues that have been exacerbated during COVID,” he said Wednesday, adding that school districts are being used as pawns by Santa Fe bureaucrats.

Republican Sen. David Gallegos of Eunice, who serves on another local school board, said the Floyd board did what it was elected to do.

I am curious about what legal basis the state's Public Education Department has to suspend a duly elected school board. 

To read the full article, go here.

The Republican Party of New Mexico issued the following statement:

NEW MEXICO STATE GOVERNMENT VIOLATING LAW AS IT SEEKS TO PERMANENTLY ELIMINATE FLOYD, NM SCHOOL BOARD

RPNM: STATE'S AUTHORITARIAN LEGAL TACTICS MUST BE STOPPED-- SCHOOL BOARDS MUST HAVE LOCAL CONTROL IN THEIR COMMUNITIES

Albuquerque, August 5--The Republican Party of New Mexico is alarmed and outraged that the Lujan Grisham Administration is seeking legal action to permanently do away with the Floyd, New Mexico School Board. The state is blatantly exceeding its authority in this attempted takeover.

The Governor and the Public Education Department is again putting politics before pupils.

There must be local control of schools across our state. 

It is imperative that school districts across New Mexico make decisions in the best interests of their students and school employees. Our school boards have the duty and the right to make decisions as a self-governing body. These members know what’s best for students in their communities.

This is another bully tactic by the Governor and the state’s Public Education Department—which has now had three Secretaries and been under fire during the Governor’s tenure--and an absolute abuse of power. 

“The Governor continues her authoritarian ways. She is deliberately ignoring the rights and actions of the local school board and to use the courts now to gain state control is morally wrong and illegal,” said Republican Party of New Mexico Chairman Steve Pearce. “This is another tactic by the state to instill fear to school boards across New Mexico. It’s shameful the Governor would act in this dictatorial manner. New Mexico’s public education system is the worst in the nation, and she should be taking measures to fix this enormous problem, instead of  seeking this power grab.”