School board member makes death threats against people not wearing masks?

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Jennifer Rager-Kay, a doctor and school board member for the Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, School District, has resigned after making death threats against people not wearing masks.

Rager-Kay's husband — a public defender — also resigned from his position after his wife's social media faux pas. Her husband also reportedly received death threats because of his wife's posting.

In a now-viral Facebook post, Rager-Kay threatened to shoot anyone in her or her family's path not wearing a protective mask amid the COVID-19 pandemic, PennLive reported.

Rager-Kay reportedly made the remarks in response to seeing a photo of anti-lockdown protesters in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

The post said, "I find it interesting that the largest group of participants in the anti-lockdown protest and refusing to wear masks in public as they see it as a violation of their constitutional rights are among those against a form of gun regulations."

She continued, "As a concerned carry-permitted gun owner, if you refuse to wear a mask and try to come within 6 feet of me or my family, I will exercise the same constitutional rights to shoot you."

Rager-Kay announced her resignation just days after admitting that she had "received threats against my personal and professional well-being," the Sunbury Daily Item reported.

In a statement, she said, "I would like to publicly apologize to anyone offended by my most recent post regarding the hypocrisy of those who refuse to wear face masks yet walk around openly carrying guns. I am in a profession where the threat of someone approaching me not wearing a mask while in the midst of a pandemic is equivalent to the threat against my life. Just as it would be if they approached me with their gun drawn and pointed at me."

She continued, "As a wife, mother, and physician, it is my job and responsibility to 'do no harm' and the constant barrage of protests and defiance to public health reached a boiling point for me, thus the reason for my overly dramatic and exaggerated post. My words demonstrated how constitutional rights can be misinterpreted, and were meant to serve as an example of extremism."

Rager-Kay wasn't done there. She said that she also made the remarks because people don't properly love one another.

"My post was described as hateful, but hateful suggests a lack of love. And to me, lack of love is demonstrated by refusing to wear a mask out of love for those you encounter," she reasoned.

After her apology went viral, she followed up with a second post announcing her resignation from the school board. "I have received threats against my personal and professional wellbeing," she wrote in her letter. She also went on the offensive, and blamed Snyder County Commissioner Joe Kantz for the fallout, insisting that he took a screenshot of her private remarks and publicly shared them.

Her follow-up post read, "Our society is so divided and entrenched with the 'you vs. me' selfish mentality, that we fail to recognize the level of hypocrisy this represents."

"Someone approaching me or my family not wearing a mask while in the midst of a pandemic, and refusing to back off if asked, represents a potentially deadly threat," she complained. "Those who carry their rifles to rallies and protests speak so passionately about the right to personal defense, are the same ones now attacking me for boldly asserting that I would meet a deadly threat with deadly force."

She pointed out that "[n]o amount of inequity or injustice is worth the risk to my family and my profession."