ATLANTA (LifeSiteNews) — Two mothers who oppose school mask mandates and the teaching of Critical Race Theory to children have been arrested by police at a school board meeting after one failed to wear a mask and the other was found in possession of a pair of scissors.
The arrests took place Thursday at the Gwinnett County Public Schools district headquarters near Atlanta, Georgia, as the two moms were passing through a security checkpoint with metal detectors.
The first mother to be arrested was Karen Pirkle. She attempted to go through security without wearing a face covering.
According to The Daily Wire, Pirkle had already refused to wear a face mask at an October school board meeting a month prior. Other parents at the meeting supported her move by taking off their own masks and chanting “unmask our children.”
Pirkle was subsequently banned from attending school board meetings for a year and was issued a criminal trespass warning.
“After misbehavior at the last meeting, a criminal trespass warning was issued, and that’s a letter that basically explains you’re not allowed to come on GCPS property,” said Sloan Roach, a spokeswoman for the school district. “That was communicated with her and then she showed up tonight still attempting to come to the meeting, so she violated that order.”
Pirkle was later charged with violating a criminal trespass warning by attempting to attend the next school board meeting in spite of the warning.
A video released on Twitter shows four police officers attempting, not without difficulty, to handcuff Pirkle, though the woman appears to offer little resistance.
“She’s not fighting,” the person filming is heard saying.
“She’s not cooperating either,” replies the female police officer handcuffing her.
WATCH: Two moms got arrested at a school board meeting Thursday in Georgia’s Gwinnett County.
Here’s mom Karen Pirkle getting arrested for showing up after she was banned for not wearing a face mask last time
Story TC @realDailyWire pic.twitter.com/EZq6uT2GFC
— Mairead Elordi (@JohnsonHildy) November 24, 2021
The second mom, Brenda Stewart, was arrested only moments later, as she was attempting to help Pirkle with her phone as can be seen in another video clip of the incident where Pirkle is heard calling out for someone to take her phone.
Here’s video of the second mom, Brenda Stewart, walking towards the metal detectors after the first mom asks someone to take her phone while she’s being cuffed. Stewart is arrested herself moments later.
This is at the Gwinnett County school board meeting on Thursday. pic.twitter.com/wxFbfIsyrf
— Mairead Elordi (@JohnsonHildy) November 24, 2021
Stewart offered to help and to take Pirkle’s phone to her husband, but as she went through the security checkpoint, the security officers stopped her over a pair of childproof kindergarten scissors that they retrieved from her purse.
Following a misunderstanding over the pair of scissors which led to an altercation, Steward was also arrested and handcuffed.
Finally, this is mom Brenda Stewart getting cuffed by multiple security officers after she walked through a metal detector with a pair of kindergarten scissors that she uses for crocheting in her purse.
At the Gwinnett County school board meeting Thursday. pic.twitter.com/9zOsf0fsiP
— Mairead Elordi (@JohnsonHildy) November 24, 2021
The two moms were later thrown in jail where they remained for several hours and were both fined $1,300.
Stewart told The Daily Wire that “she was never read her rights or told what she was being charged with until she was en route to jail.”
“They were extremely rough in a way that no parent, no mother, or no woman should be manhandled by a huge group of men,” she added.
Sloan Roach, the school district spokeswoman, later defended the way the two mothers were treated by the police.
“In both cases, laws were broken, and our school resource officers responded appropriately,” he said.
According to The Daily Wire, Stewart also opposes Gwinnett County’s school mask mandate and is currently homeschooling her 9-year-old daughter as a result. She also spoke against teaching Critical Race Theory to kids at another school board meeting several months prior to the incident.