Anti-maskers shut down Washougal School Board meeting

The Washougal School Board said it postponed a public meeting after multiple people in the audience refused to follow a state mandate requiring face coverings inside public school board meetings to help curb the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

School board members met in a closed executive session at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 25, at the Washougal School District headquarters, and then held a work session. The board had planned to call its regular meeting to order at 6:30 p.m., but when they returned to the meeting room after a short break, school board members saw “a group of attendees who refused to comply with the posted health guidance and did not respond to repeated requests to wear a mask,” said Les Brown, the district’s director of communications and technology.