A quickly growing Facebook group has planned a peaceful rally on November 10th. The group, East County Mamas & Dads For Freedom’ only started one month ago and has already amassed 1400 members. The group was founded as a way to educate parents on what is going on in schools and at school boards and what they can do to influence board decisions, primarily on the issue of mandates.
The group’s founder Rachel Ashlee said in an interview with KUSI, “I found that a lot of parents in East County weren’t really familiar on how to gather information”. Ashlee decided to gather families who were concerned about mandates and other education issues and their unity on the issue allowed them to grow quickly. Their rally comes on the heels of the recent announcement that 5-11 year olds will be required to take the COVID vaccine after it was approved by the FDA. Ashlee said that the news was frightening to her and highlighted that kids are not at risk of COVID and that some children have had negative reactions to the vaccine such as blood clots. With a drop off in the medical workforce, Ashlee said she fears that children will not get adequate care if they have a negative reaction, “It’s very concerning to me when children are so low at risk, we need to be able to adapt and move with COVID, and to me, a vaccine is not the only choice” says Ashlee.
Ashlee said that the group is encouraging parents to make decisions that fit their families best and that they do not need a school board or government interfering with that decision. She also said that school boards should be encouraging healthy habits such as exercise and healthy eating rather than focus all of their effort into vaccines, “We are not discussing other alternatives like healthy eating, vitamins, supplements, exercise. Instead of talking about just a vaccine to protect others, why are we not talking about other alternatives”.
The group is holding a rally on November 10th right before the Grossmont Union School District Board meeting to protest the mandate for children 5 to 11.
Photo Cred: KUSI
