WENTZVILLE, Mo. – A claim of assault punctuated a Wentzville School Board meeting Thursday night, while students were fighting to be heard. It happened over a mask.
Wentzville Ward One Alderman Robert Hussey was at Liberty High School in O’Fallon for Thursday night’s Wentzville’s School Board meeting when suddenly someone claimed ‘assault.’
During the meeting in question, students were being told they were complaining about being prohibited from speaking. “Our voices demand to be heard,” one student said.
It was about 30 minutes into the meeting and you could see Robert Hussey at the bottom of the screen in the recorded stream of the meeting. Hussey is seen standing up, taking off his mask and walking out.
15 seconds later, you see everyone look to the right. Someone yells, “Did you really just do that? That’s disgusting! That’s disgusting!”
A student says from the podium, “We’re in a room with adults who can’t even wear masks.”
A police officer asked the student to sit down. The students push back. One of them says, “All of these people deserve to have a voice.” Another student protests, “How is this more outrageous than the assault that just occurred over there?!”
Social media lit up after the meeting with posts with Hussey’s face that said #classless and accusing the Alderman of having a “Hussey fit!”
He said the assault allegation against him involved an education labor union representative. He spoke by phone as he was traveling in Kentucky today. He said, “I was twirling my mask walking by them, kind of in protest of their liberal agenda when it slipped off my finger and fell at their feet. And then you know somebody, I think as I was walking out yelled ‘that’s assault’ and I’m like ‘dropping a mask is an assault? Ok.’”
We also asked Hussey, “On the meeting video you can also hear somebody say ‘that’s disgusting,’ what was that about?” Hussey responded, “Maybe me not wearing a mask?”
Hussey told FOX 2 on Friday that he also believed the students had a right to talk.
“They didn’t get to speak. I didn’t get to speak, which I think my opinion was different than the students but regardless – anybody who wants to speak in an open forum should be able to speak,” he said.
Hussey said he left immediately and that police called him that night, but he believes the investigation is done. FOX 2 is checking with police and the Wentzville School Board about what happened, what’s next and what might be done about it.
