Grace Smith, the Wyoming teenager who was removed from her high school in handcuffs following her refusal to wear a mask on school property, said she has been protesting and “going against all this mask stuff since the beginning of the school year,” according to comments she made in a Wednesday interview.
Two weeks into her school’s mask mandate, she “walked out with the nation” on Sept. 9 in protest, the 16-year-old said.
“I led a protest right afterward, and then, ever since then, the school has kind of had their eye on me,” she said.
WYOMING HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT ARRESTED FOR REFUSAL TO WEAR A MASK
She was the first child to be suspended and received a $500 trespassing citation for not leaving the school, according to Smith.
“The third time I got suspended, I chose not to leave whatsoever,” she said. “And they arrested me.”
16-year-old Grace Smith, a high school student who was arrested and put in handcuffs after she refused to wear a mask on school grounds, and her dad Andy Smith, spoke to Newsmax’s @FinnertyUSA & @RachelRollarTV on Wednesday’s “Wake Up America.” pic.twitter.com/YXWh6bNUxr
— Newsmax (@newsmax) October 13, 2021
The situation is a “whirlwind,” Smith’s father, Andy Smith, said.
“We are trying to stay positive,” he said. “We are listening and trying to read all the positive messages. You’re going to have, you know, this crazy, divided world. You’re going to have messages of hate and bullying coming from both sides.”
Still, he never thought an arrest was in the realm of possibility for his daughter.
“We never thought that they would go this far,” he said. “Grace made a stand on her civil liberties, and they took it all the way to this point.”
The younger Smith now has two trespassing tickets, and the family expects the charges will be dropped, the father said.
“We don’t believe the trespassing violation, itself, is even lawful,” he said. “There will be a suit pending.”
Following her arrest, the teenager has received both support and disdain from her friends and classmates, Smith said.
“I have been bullied a little bit since the protest,” she said. “I have had things thrown at me and vulgar things said, but, for the most part, I have people on my side.”
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Roughly half of the students have refused to wear masks. Four were suspended, but only Smith refused to leave, leading to her arrest, she said.
