DETROIT – The Michigan Association for Local Public Health believes the pandemic is bringing the worst out of people when it comes to making threats against health and school officials over mask wearing.
With that said, the association is asking Michigan leaders to issue a statewide mask mandate before it’s too late.
Read: Tracking Michigan school districts, colleges requiring masks for 2021-2022 school year
“We’ve had multiple health officers who have had their lives threatened, their careers threatened, their funding threatened,” said Norm Hess, executive director of the association. “There’s just a lot of outlandish behavior going on.”
Hess insists too many people have gone too far by threatening school officials all because they have a different opinion on whether a mask should be worn in public schools or not.
“There’s some pretty crazy behavior out there in public meetings,” Hess said. “I mean, you can look at many different media websites and see types of behaviors that we would not have expected in the middle of a public health crisis like this.”
It’s because of that reason that Hess and several others with the Michigan Association of Local Public Health are urging state leaders to get on the same page, before something worse happens.
“It’s affecting multiple jurisdictions right now, and that is why we asked MDHHS to consider, again, a statewide mask mandate for schools. We have been in regular contact with Director Hertel,” Hess said.
Just days ago, Kent County health director Adam London had his life threatened because of a school mask mandate. Hess says at the end of the day, those getting threatened are just regular people.
“These health officers, they are citizens of their counties, their kids go to school, they want this over just as much as anybody else does,” Hess said. “It’s just a tragedy that people are treating them this way. They’re not elected officials and they’re just doing the job that they were hired to do.”
In response, the Michigan governor’s office sent Local 4 the following statement:
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