This week, parent James Akers stripped down to his boxers during a school board meeting to prove a point about masks.
A 15-year resident of Dripping Springs, Texas, the father of three spoke during the meeting, explaining that he does “not like government or any other entity — ask my wife — telling me what to do.”
“But,” he continued, “sometimes I gotta push the envelope a little bit and I just decided that I’m not gonna talk about it, I’m gonna walk the walk.”
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That’s when things started getting a little weird.
“At work, they make me wear this jacket, and I hate it,” said Akers, as he began stripping his clothing in protest of the school district’s mask-optional policy. “They make me wear this shirt and tie. I hate it.”
“On the way over here,” the dad said, “I ran three stop signs and four read lights and almost killed somebody out there.”
“But by God,” he continued, as he kept undressing, “it’s my roads, too, so I have every right to drive as fast as I want to, make the turns that I want to. I got to the school today in the parking lot and decided I’m gonna park wherever the [expletive] I want to, which, in this case, happened to be a handicapped [spot].”
The longer he spoke, the fewer clothing items Akers had left to remove.
“We follow certain rules for a very good reason,” he told the board, removing his pants to reveal his boxers. “It’s simple protocol people. We follow certain rules for a very good reason.”
At that point — with only one clothing item remaining to remove — a school board member interjected, “Mr. Akers, I understand. I believe you’re a swimmer, but if you wouldn’t mind putting your pants back on first for comment, that would be appreciated.”
The disgruntled father put his pants back on and finished his comments shirtless.
Akers was presumably making the case that human beings follow all sorts of cultural customs — like wearing clothes — without complaining about them, so, therefore, masks shouldn’t be a problem.