Fired-Up Virginia Mom Merianne Jensen Talks with C&B

BUCK: Virginia mom Merianne Jensen. She’s with us live. But before we let you hear from her the update here, want to recall that she went viral last week for speaking out at a school board meeting. Here is that audio.

BUCK: That was Virginia mom Merianne Jensen, who is with us now. Merianne, thanks for calling in the Clay and Buck show.

JENSEN: Hey, thanks for having me here. I really appreciate it.

BUCK: What’s it like to go viral when you’re standing up for your kids and kids all across the country that are being forced to mask up for no apparent reason? How’s it been going?

JENSEN: It’s been surreal. It’s been surreal. You know, the video was put up on YouTube for my family on the West Coast to see how I did. I woke up the next morning and it had gone viral, and I was shocked. It was such a… It’s just been a surreal week. It’s been overwhelming, and it’s been amazing, actually.

BUCK: And what are some of the reactions you’ve gotten from, folks? I mean, you know, who’s reaching out to you? And I just want to know. I would assume a lot of parents are probably say to you, “Thanks for doing it; thanks for speaking the truth.”

JENSEN: Oh, I’ve had hundreds of people from all over the country reaching out to me. I’ve had grandpas that have said, “Thank you for fighting for my grandchildren.” I’ve had mothers, I’ve had fathers, I’ve had… At the board meeting that night I had little kids coming up to me hugging me, telling me thank you for fighting for them. And so that’s what I’m doing it for. I’m doing it for the kids, but I’m doing it for all the other parents who may not have a voice or who have jobs and are not able to speak out. That’s what I’m here for and I will continue to do it.

CLAY: Merianne, this is Clay. I appreciate you coming on with us here. I saw your speech. I spoke at my school back in August for my kids as well. I want to start with this. How many kids do you have in school, and where are they going to school, and what has been the reaction since that school board meeting?

JENSEN: I have four children. I have a 12-year-old son, I have twins who are 10 — a boy and a girl — and I have a 7-year-old little girl. And I’m not really comfortable saying what schools they go to —

CLAY: Yeah.

JENSEN: — but they are in Prince William County.

CLAY: Okay. So in Prince William County — and I loved the way you laid it out talking about that situation, you guys have ended up as the epicenter in many ways in northern Virginia as the battleground over school masking. What is the latest in terms of what’s going on in that county in Virginia and what do you anticipate in the wake of that school board meeting and your speech that went viral and we played on this show and obviously has been shared so many different places all over?

JENSEN: That’s a great question. I wish I knew what was gonna happen. I wish Superintendent McDade would call me and say, “Hey, you know what? Thanks for your speech, we’re gonna end mask mandates.”

CLAY: (chuckling)

JENSEN: Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s gonna happen. Seven counties went into a lawsuit. It just went through the Arlington circuit court, and it’s going to go now to the Virginia Supreme Court. Unfortunately there was a conflict of interest in that Arlington court. The judge had a spouse who is a teacher in that county. So that’s a big mess. As far as what’s going to happen, I really don’t know. With all of these states taking down mask mandates, the writing is on the wall. They’ve got to wake up and see that they are losing. They are losing big time, and it needs to end.

BUCK: We’re speaking to Virginia mom Merianne Jensen, for anyone joining us, who last week went viral for her speech at her school board in Virginia where she said enough with this mask madness — and specifically, Merianne, I wanted to have you address that there was a member of the… What was it, school chancellor or superintendent or some school official who had said previously, months previously, “Were it not for the governor’s order,” when the governor was Democrat Northam, “we would totally take the masks off your kids’ faces.” Now it’s Governor Youngkin, and they’re still not taking the masks off the faces. Do they have any explanation for you, did you get either before or after your speech any explanation from that official about why he or she essentially lied?

JENSEN: No. I haven’t heard anything. It was our superintendent. We were at a critical race theory town hall meeting on November 15th. I remember what she was wearing. I remember where we were standing in the hallway. I grabbed her aside and said, “Hey, what can you do to get these kids out of masks?” and she looked at me and need said, “I know it’s been so hard; I would love to see things back to normal.

“But unfortunately, my hands are tied and I’m waiting for guidance from Richmond.” So I came home and I told my children, I said, “Just wait, guys. Just wait. Just a few more months we’ve got Governor Youngkin coming in. Just wait.” So I was lied to, and I do not like to be lied to. (chuckles) And that’s been the hardest thing is for my children to be so excited to be able to get out of masks and then, “Oh, sorry, guys! Our superintendent who lied to me is now saying we can’t do that.” That’s been the hardest thing is seeing how my children have been affected by this.

CLAY: We’re talking to Merianne Jensen. Okay. You reached out to me yesterday, and this got me super fired up. So your three-minute discussion, your speech, your argument against kids having to wear masks — and as you said, you’re a mother of four kids in Northern Virginia — that went up on YouTube. And then YouTube said it violated their community standards, and they pulled that down.

Now, just for people out there who are listening, you spoke at a public forum, a school board event. (chuckles) It is the very essence of a community based event to allow people to share their opinion about their kids. Again, just to reiterate, you’ve got four kids in these schools. What did YouTube say to you? Is it still pulled down?

And what sort of recourse, it any, do you have to enable that three-minute discussion to be able to be shared again? Because so many parents out there are like you, they’re like me; they want to be able to share the data because it is, I think, child abuse to continue to put kids in masks when there’s no scientific evidence to support it.

JENSEN: Yes, I was ticked yesterday when I went to click on my video to show somebody and it said you are violating community standards. I was really angry. I felt like they were trying to shut down my voice. And I guess YouTube thinks that moms can’t speak up. They were trying to keep me in my place. They wanted to get me back in the kitchen. And like I said before, not this mom, and not all the other moms who are sick of school boards playing political games with our children.

So I tweeted it, and I got a lot of, you know, lot of comments. I’ve got over a hundred thousand impressions just on that one tweet. And I believe it’s back up because of some pressure from high-profile individuals, and I feel like they are losing, and they know that they’re losing. So all these states are reversing their mask mandates. We’re at the top of the wave and it’s cresting, and I think YouTube knows this. They’re afraid of us.

CLAY: That’s so well said, and I wanted to follow up. I’m glad that YouTube has adjusted their response there, and I don’t think it’s any doubt that you reaching out and helping to draw attention to it… When you saw New Jersey, Delaware, and Connecticut — those are three blue states with three Democratic governors — effectively acknowledge that your argument was right, what was your reaction to seeing what happened yesterday as the tide against masking seems now to have spread not only from parents in red or purple states but now directly into blue states?

JENSEN: Yeah. It’s surprising but it’s not. I wish I could say I was “the voice.” I wish I could say I was the catalyst that started this. But I think it’s resonating to parents, the facts and the data, and so they can’t hide from it. These blue states cannot hide from the fact that 331 children have died of covid-related incidents. We can’t hide behind this anymore. Children are not lining up on the streets or in the schools dying. And that may sound callous, but they’re just not. And so these blue states should have lifted their mask mandates a long time ago when the data has come out. It’s not right.

BUCK: Merianne Jensen, thank you so much, fired-up Virginia mom. We hope you’ll come back and tell us how this go ’cause until this fight is over, it’s not over.

JENSEN: It’s not over! We gotta keep fighting. We’ve gotta put the pressure on these school boards, absolutely.

BUCK: Thank you so much, Merianne. Great work. We appreciate you being with us.