(JUST THE NEWS) – North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has turned aside Republican lawmakers' attempt to let parents opt their children out of mask requirements at schools. Cooper vetoed Senate Bill 173, the Free the Smiles Act, on Thursday after the General Assembly passed the bill last week.
"I have encouraged local boards to lift mask mandates and they are doing it across the state with the advice of health officials who see that COVID metrics are declining and vaccinations are increasing," Cooper said in a statement. "The bipartisan law the legislature passed and I signed last year allows local boards to make these decisions for their own communities and that is still the right course.
"Passing laws for political purposes that encourage people to pick and choose which health rules they want to follow is dangerous and could tie the hands of public health officials in the future."
The post Governor vetoes bill giving parents power regarding school mask mandates appeared first on WND.
