A New York mother and local talk radio host says she is filing a federal lawsuit after being arrested while attending a school board meeting for allegedly not properly wearing a mask last year.
Shannon Joy, in an interview with SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly, said that when she was attending the board meeting she only lowered her mask for a moment to put a piece of gum in her mouth, but that is when the members broke for a recess, called 9-11, and directed police officers to arrest her.
She was indeed cuffed, arrested, and charged with “trespassing” — all of which was captured on video.
“Yup. I was handcuffed & detained by Monroe County Sheriff tonight for inappropriately wearing my mask at the Fairport School District board meeting,” she posted to social media.
After the motion to recess was seconded, Joy told the members: “This is not leadership. You asked us to be respectful of you, and you can’t respect the taxpayers and citizens. This is silly.”
In a photo posted to Twitter, she added: “The irony. I was arrested for wearing my mask improperly. By a barefaced police officer and another with the mask under her chin. How is this America?”
The irony.
I was arrested for wearing my mask improperly. By a barefaced police officer and another with the mask under her chin. How is this America? pic.twitter.com/wGPraNExu7— Shannon Joy (@ShannonJoyRadio) August 25, 2021
Eventually, the trespassing charge against Joy was dismissed in the interest of “justice,” but Joy filed the suit anyway as a means of providing legal support for other parents similarly charged around the country, she told Kelly.
“When they called the recess, I got this sinking feeling that they were going to arrest, potentially, me,” Joy recounted. “This particular meeting was very different than previous meetings. The board had worked with an outside organization called ‘Black In The Burbs,’ which is a suburban version of BLM (Black Lives Matter) and they brought in about 25 activists — all with red shirts.”
“When I came into that meeting there were probably six or seven cameras on me from the second I walked into that room,” she continued. “So, everyone sensed that something was very different about this meeting.”
“The only time [my mask] came underneath my nose was when I took it down to put a piece of gum in my mouth,” Joy explained. “And in that moment, that’s when Mary White, who was a school board member, signaled to security and other members of the board that they wanted to go to recess. They then went to recess and I was told by the arresting officer that they called 911, requested specifically that Shannon Joy is arrested.”
Joy went on to describe the arrest as “terrifying” and “humiliating” while noting further that, in the aftermath, her husband was doxxed.
Nevertheless, she also pledged that she was “not gonna back down,” referencing the federal lawsuit.
“It was one of the most uncomfortable situations that I have ever endured,” she said. “And I’m glad that it happened because it exposed what these school boards are capable of.”
“But it was terrifying, humiliating … the conversations I had to have that evening with my kids and my husband, my neighbors — it’s divided a lot of our neighborhood. It’s a difficult battle … but I’m not gonna back down. That’s the thing: what they did was wrong, and this is why we are filing this federal lawsuit,” she told Kelly.
Following her arrest, the mother of three told The Daily Wire she believes that she was specifically targeted.
“It is becoming blatantly apparent that the Fairport School Board, Superintendent Brett Provenzano and outside organization ‘Black In The Burbs’ collaborated to create meeting conditions designed to result in my arrest,” Joy said.
“I have been an outspoken community organizer with a large media platform and am often critical of the board’s policy & practices regarding masking, coerced vaccination, Critical Race Theory & Comprehensive Sex Education,” she added.
“These individuals are so frightened of transparency and organic, open discourse that they sought to silence, intimidate and publicly humiliate me to serve as a warning to any other parent who dares to speak up,” she continued. “Instead, they have inadvertently outraged our community even further.”
