Texas dad strips down at school board meeting to make statement about masks

A Texas father dressed down to his underpants at a School District's board meeting to make his point about wearing masks. With students returning to in-person classes, there has been considerable debate on whether to implement mask and vaccination mandates. With Coronavirus resurging on account of the Delta variant, the science and the CDC have pushed for the use of masks, but some states, schools, and even parents are against mandates of any kind stating that it was an impingement on their freedom. James Akers, a concerned father, took the mic 30 minutes into the Dripping Springs Independent School District's board meeting and delivered a stirring speech about why masks should be mandated in schools, reported People.

Akers is Dad to four kids, of whom one is studying in the school. He argued in favor of mask protocols and noted that it is just an addition to the many protocols people follow every day. His sarcastic message along with the drama of taking off his clothes during a board meeting really hit home. "I'm here to show you that I do not like government, or any other entity — just ask my wife — telling me what to do," he said at the start of the video. "But, sometimes I've got to push the envelope a little bit, and I've just decided that I'm going to not just talk about it, but I'm going to walk the walk."

As he continued, he started taking off one piece of clothing at a time, starting with his shirt. "At work, they make me wear this jacket. I hate it. They make me wear this shirt and tie. I hate it," he said, as he took them off. He continued, talking about arriving at the meeting and sarcastically spoke about his disregard for rules and others' safety. "On the way over here, I ran three stop signs and four red lights," he said casually. "I almost killed somebody out there but by God, it's my world too so I have every right to drive as fast as I want to and make the turns that I want to."

He then said that the school parking lot was full, so he parked in a handicapped spot because he wanted to park "wherever the hell I want to." Many cheered him on, as a few others called for him to be removed. "It's simple protocol, people. We follow certain rules. We follow certain rules for a very good reason," he said, wrapping up his speech. The Board President Barbara Stroud requested the man to put his clothes back on and he obliged. While it appeared he was wearing underwear in the video, Dale Whitaker, a spokesperson for Dripping Springs Independent School District (DSISD) said he was actually wearing a swimsuit.

After the video went viral, Akers reiterated his point. "There are too many voices out there that I think are digging in for political reasons, and absolutely just not thinking about the common-sense decisions we make every day to comply with everything, from driving down the road and being safe and courteous to other drivers, to not parking in handicapped spots," he explained to KXAN. "All these rules that we're given every day that we follow because they make sense."

Texas has been one of the states that have strongly opposed mask mandates thanks to Republican governor Greg Abbott, who issued an executive order banning the government, including public school districts, from mandating masks.

You can watch James Akers from the 26th minute in the following video:

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