NorCal Father Attacks Teacher Over Mask Mandate

SUTTER CREEK, CA — A California elementary school teacher was injured by an irate parent last week after an argument over masking requirements for students escalated into violence, according to multiple reports.

A father of a student at Sutter Creek Elementary School in Northern California arrived on campus to pick up his daughter at the end of the school's first day back from summer break on Wednesday. After seeing his daughter and the principal wearing masks, the man approached the principal and expressed his frustrations over indoor masking requirements, Amador County Unified School District Superintendent Torie Gibson told KTXL.

The parent reportedly left but returned to speak with her again, KTXL reported. When a male teacher stepped in to intervene, a physical altercation ensued. The teacher was injured in the scuffle and taken to a hospital for treatment.

"The teacher was bleeding," Gibson told KCRA 3. "He had some lacerations on his face, some bruising on his face, and a pretty good knot on the back of his head."

Those involved in the incident were not named by school officials. The parent has since been banned from campus, KCRA reported.

The news comes as tensions rise in the Golden State over indoor masking and vaccine mandates on school campuses. Some coronavirus restrictions have returned in California as the highly transmissable delta variant continues to drive cases up in the state.

Last week, California became the first state to require proof of vaccination or weekly testing for its 320,000 teachers and school employees.

"We think this is the right thing to do, and we think this is a sustainable way to keeping our schools open and to address the No. 1 anxiety that parents like myself have for young children," Gov. Gavin Newsom said. "And that is knowing that the schools are doing everything in their power to keep our kids safe, to keep our kids healthy."

In a recent Patch survey, In a recent non-scientific survey, which drew 3,167 respondents, we asked Patch readers whether they thought the testing and vaccination requirement for school staff was warranted — 66.8 percent said "yes," 31 percent answered "no," and just 1.8 percent said they were unsure.

READ MORE: CA Mandates Vaccination, Testing For Educators: Readers Weigh In