On Feb. 5 a parent was arrested at a girl’s recreational basketball game for deliberately defying The Morgan School’s mask mandate. As a result, the town has asked that a police officer be present at future games.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has dragged on, states and business have instituted mask mandates for vaccinated and unvaccinated people alike. The majority of public health officials agree that the wearing of masks in public places helps reduce the transmission of the virus, depending on variables like the type of mask worn, the amount of exposure to other people, and where the contact takes place.

Clinton has now become the latest scene of a refusal to comply with a mask mandate. Branford resident Shawn Patrick Lessard was arrested at The Morgan School on Feb. 5 and charged with criminal trespass in the first degree. He is due in Middletown Superior Court on Feb. 18.

Though Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont has announced at press time that he intends to lift the mask mandate for schools at the end of February, some disagree with the decision. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, stated in an interview with Reuters new service that she still endorses mask wearing in school despite several states in addition to Connecticut announcing they intend to lift mandates as well.

Even before the states began dropping the mask mandates in recent weeks, the national and local news broadcasts have featured stories from across the country of people who have disrupted meetings or other public events in defiance of the mandates. Some of people believe the science is wrong, others believe being compelled to wear a mask is a violation of personal freedom, and others say they cannot wear masks for health reasons.

The Incident

On the afternoon of Feb. 5, The Morgan School gym was host to girls’ basketball games for kids in grades 3 to 5. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the state has instituted a mask mandate for secondary schools and signs on the doors of the building state that masks are required inside.

According to a police report filed by Clinton Police Officer Robert Sepega, the Clinton Police Department received a call from a concerned parent stating that Lessard was refusing to wear a mask and refusing to leave the gym when asked.

As stated in the report, Lessard, who was at the gym to watch his daughter play basketball, walked into the gym without a mask but later briefly covered his face after confronted. However that only lasted a few minutes. When approached a second time to put his mask on, Sepega wrote that he was told that Lessard “began to escalate the situation and began acting in a hostile and threatening manner” including throwing his mask on the ground and puffing his chest. A parent became concerned that Lessard was going to become physically violent and called the police.

When Sepega arrived at the gym and spoke with Lessard, he asked that Lessard leave the gym.

“Lessard said that he fought for the school and also he paid taxes” and would not leave the gym until his daughter’s game was over, Sepega wrote. When, according to the report, Sepega told Lessard that he did not want to have to arrest him, Lessard replied “Arrest me. I don’t give a [expletive].”

Sepega asked a coach if the games could be called early to make everyone leave, but the coach declined because it would not be fair to the other kids, Sepega wrote in his report. Sepega then gave Lessard one more chance to leave, but after he again refused to do so, Sepega placed Lessard under arrest.

According to his report, Sepega said in part that Lessard “wrote on a social media website that he told us [the police] that he had PTSD and anxiety from being in the military and that this is why he can’t wear a mask. Lessard never made this statement to us. He also stated he would be going back to school next Saturday to watch his daughter’s game and will still not wear a mask.”

The Town Responds

The incident was briefly discussed during a Parks & Recreation Commission meeting on Feb. 8. Parks & Rec Director Bo Potter stated that while he was not in attendance the day of the incident, he was brought up to speed on what happened and had read the police report. Potter said that he has requested that a police officer be present at the games scheduled for Feb. 12 due to Lessard’s stated desire to return and not comply with the mask mandate.

When asked how much money it costs to hire an officer for the day, Potter said he hadn’t been informed if an officer would definitely be there and therefore didn’t have the final cost estimate yet.

“Money isn’t the issue. It’s defusing a scene I don’t want,” Potter said.

“I don’t want this to happen again and I don’t want to have to cancel games because of one person who won’t follow a policy. That’s not fair to the kids or the other parents. The only way I can think to make sure that doesn’t happen is to hire an officer and make sure it doesn’t happen,” Potter said.

Clinton Police Chief Vince DeMaio told the Harbor News that officers “are regularly assigned to school/town sporting events as an extra-duty assignment. This means that town bills whomever has requested the officer (in most cases, for sporting events, either the [Board of Education] or Parks and Rec).

“There will be an officer assigned in this manner to the upcoming game(s),” DeMaio stated. “Also, on-duty shift personnel are always ready to respond to any incident or emergency to assist the officer(s) assigned to an extra-duty detail.”

The extra duty jobs bill at $54.71 per hour.

The Harbor News reached out to Lessard to ask if he really did intend to return to future games without a mask, why he refused to wear a mask, and if he disputes anything in the police report.

Citing his upcoming court date, Lessard declined to comment beyond two statements: “I’m a Marine Corps vet this is not the country I fought for in Iraq 2008” and “Unmask our kids.”