4th grader at LSU Lab school suspended for not wearing mask

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BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - A nine-year-old has been suspended from University Lab, a school located on the LSU campus in Baton Rouge, after refusing to wear a mask inside his fourth grade classroom.

The student was suspended Wednesday, Jan. 4, the first day students were back in the classroom following the holiday break.

The boy’s father, Kyle Robichaux, said he stands behind his son’s decision. He added that he believes it is “buffoonish” for students to be required to wear masks in the classroom while thousands are allowed to gather inside the nearby Pete Maravich Assembly Center (PMAC) for basketball games where no masks are required. Nearly 12,000 fans were inside the PMAC Tuesday night to watch the LSU men’s basketball team play against Kentucky. The vast majority of those fans were not wearing a mask.
University Lab recently informed parents that when classes resumed this week, students would be required to wear masks inside classrooms as a precaution against the spread of COVID-19.

“We have decided that our children own their own face,” said Robichaux. “All the kids from the Lab School could have easily gone to the PMAC last night and sat elbow-to-elbow without a mask, yet we are requiring them to wear them in the classroom.”

In an email to the student’s parents, Lab School Director Kevin George said the student was being suspended for three days for violating the mask policy. In the email, he reminds the parents that they were previously advised that their son “could not remain on campus and refuse to obey a teacher’s directive regarding the mask mandate.”

“A student refusing to follow our mask mandate is a safety concern and would disrupt our campus,” the email from George also stated.
“At this point, everyone knows that his mask mandate is farce. I am not going to teach my children to obey policies that lack rational thought,” explained Robichaux.