ALLEGAN COUNTY, Mich. — The Allegan County Health Department currently requires kids in kindergarten through sixth grade to wear masks in school.
Parents in Allegan County are resisting the current mandate in place for students too young to get a COVID vaccine.
READ MORE: Allegan, Kalamazoo counties requiring masks indoors for students in grades K-6
"It's ridiculous that we are having to go through this," one parent says. "But right now, we have a chance to stand up to tyranny as we see it. We have to stand up or this is going to continue."
The rally drew about a hundred or so people.
Organizer Rachelle Smith has two kids in Otsego Middle School, where masks became mandated on the third day of the school year.
"So for me personally, I drove to the school, picked up my kids and off we went," says Smith. "And my kids have not been back since. Currently, we have not withdrawn them, but we are waiting to see what the Allegan County Health Department will do with the board of commissioners' resolution."
Smith and others in the crowd here are re-evaluating their plans for school this year if the mandate stays in effect.
"I am the parent," says Smith. "I don't co-parent with the government; I don't co-parent with the Allegan County Health Department. I choose medical decisions for my children."
The Allegan Board of Commissioners held a special meeting last Friday asking the health department to drop the mask mandate.
There is still no word on if that letter will sway them in a different direction.