This post was updated at 5:30 a.m. ET with the school board’s last decision regarding the mandatory vaccination mandate.
A school board in Oregon met Tuesday to discuss a proposal to mandate that students be vaccinated in order to attend their high school.
The meeting was scheduled to happen at a middle school, but the school board had to move to the elementary school after the meeting room became too small, according to CNN affiliate KATU.
Earlier Tuesday, some public speakers expressed their frustrations with the school board’s decision to repeal the mandatory vaccine mandate.
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Many of the attendees donned those infamous white face masks, wearing blue vests and carrying signs that said “shame on you.”
KATU reported that the atmosphere was “eerie” inside the elementary school, with one mom berating the school board, “you’ve disenfranchised our children.” The crowd chanted “shame on you” at the board several times.
A sign in the meeting room said that anyone who wore a mask would be asked to leave. KATU reported that a few people with masks left.
School board president Bill Fennelly said the meeting focused on parents not respecting the board’s decision.
“The next step is for everyone to tone it down. I think people are trying to be respectful. We expect them to,” he said.
The meeting ended with a vote for school board member Julie Veeck to speak at the next meeting.
Fennelly said there’s “only so much we can do” to ensure that there are only healthy children in schools.
Many parents have been fighting the school board’s decision to completely repeal the policy of requiring that students be vaccinated.
The school board voted 7-2 to repeal the policy, a decision which was opposed by its parent advisory committee.
In 2015, the Oregon Health Authority said the policy would be totally repealed in the coming year, according to CNN affiliate KATU.
Parents were previously not required to vaccinate their children. The policy first went into effect in 2005, KATU reported.
“You have to look at the positives — it’s good for the health of the kids in the community,” district spokesperson Anne Dean told KATU.
In 2017, the school board voted to repeal the policy and pass a new one that requires all students be vaccinated.
KATU reported that the school district reported 53 cases of measles in 21 schools in the 2017-2018 school year, and about one-third of those cases were from students who didn’t have current vaccinations, the report said.
“I haven’t been able to shake the fact that we have an epidemic here in Portland. I have babies in this district. I have a child attending school here,” parent Robert Kirby told KATU.
Not everyone had a negative reaction to the vote.
“The school board for some reason wants to make it very dangerous for kids who live in this community to go to school, but they just don’t care,” parent Laurel Wright told KATU.
CNN has reached out to the Portland Public Schools for comment.
By Hadas Gold, KATU and Cierra Rodriguez, CNN
