A consequence of not wearing a mask on Lake Central School Corp. property filtered down to parents Tuesday night as the School Board of Trustees canceled its meeting on the spot.

The board waited for parents — many of whom were protesting the school’s mask policy outside the school before the meeting — to get situated in Lake Central High School’s LGI Room Tuesday night. Once they did, Lake Central School Corp. Superintendent Larry Veracco announced that it would not hold the meeting because of ongoing “disrespect.”

“Due to the disrespect that was shown at the (Aug. 17) meeting and the fact that few of you are wearing masks, we are canceling tonight’s board meeting,” Veracco said before he and the board left the stage.

The crowd immediately erupted, screaming that the board was “afraid of conducting its own meeting” and calling them “sellouts,” while three masked parents held up their own sign in favor of masks and used a hand gesture toward the anti-mask protesters.

It took a Valparaiso woman, Jessica Jepsen, several tries and a megaphone to be heard over the crowd.

“My husband removed himself from the Teacher’s Union last year in Portage because the teachers were hurting the kids,” Jepsen said. “My kids today got sent home from Valpo because they went in without a mask — completely healthy kids being segregated. My husband was told to go home from Portage because he stood up for the kids. He may not have a job in a few days, which we’re fortunate enough that he can stand up and do this, but there’s a certain

point in time that we have to start waking up the sheep and band together.”

A second woman, Maureen Ralston, of Schererville, told the crowd that the school corporation was enforcing masks because if it doesn’t, it won’t receive more than $6 million from “President Biden’s American Recovery Plan Act.”

“Several other districts said they won’t get it,” Ralston said before conceding that they will or won’t “is an assumption.” “But why are they forcing them to wear masks? Follow the money.”

Veracco on Wednesday denied the accusation.

“We get no money for mandating masks,” he said in an email. “We are mandating masks because we believe following the CDC and IDOH guidelines is appropriate. The Governor’s order states that if everyone is masked in a school, then close contacts of positive COVID-19 students do not need to be quarantined.

“Our overarching goal is to keep children in school and following Executive Order 21-24 helps us to achieve this highest priority.”

The ARPA Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund guidelines also don’t mandate masks, nor does the Indiana Department of Education. The document outlining the $2 billion Indiana will receive in federal relief money said “IDOE will require each (school district) plan to include a description of how (it) has determined its policies follow CDC guidance to the greatest extent practicable for the safe reopening of schools. This will be a required element of the ARP ESSER application prior to receiving IDOE approval. The determination of greatest extent possible is a local decision; however, IDOE Title Grants and Support grant specialists will review the narrative, provide additional technical assistance as needed.”

The CDC currently recommends masks but hasn’t mandated them.

Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.