Pembroke Academy track and field coach Bradley Keyes has been fired for refusing to enforce a mask mandate for his team, per WBZ.
Keyes, who coached at the New Hampshire high school for four years, posted a blog entry that included a letter he said he wrote to Pembroke’s AD, saying, “I will not put kids on the track and tell them to run any races while wearing masks.”
“I will not stand up in front of the kids and lie to them and tell them that these masks are doing anything worthwhile out in an open field with wind blowing and the sun shining,” Keyes wrote.
He later added “Fire me if you must.” On Monday, Keyes wrote another blog entry saying that Pembroke obliged and fired him.
“I am not surprised,” Keyes wrote. “I made my choice to speak out. They made theirs.”
Keyes admitted to WBZ that he didn’t give the school any choice.
“I backed them into a corner,” he said. “What I wanted was to make a point. I was hoping the word would get out some and maybe there would be enough reaction that down the road, maybe in a few weeks or later, some of the restrictions would be changed,” Keyes said. “I just think people haven’t pushed back and I decided it was time to push back. …
“I wear a mask where I have to. I’ll wear a mask when I go into stores or any private business that wants me to. Based on what I read honestly I don’t believe they do much good.”
In Massachusetts, the MIAA requires track athletes “to wear cloth face coverings/masks per EEA guidelines, including always covering both the nose and mouth” as well.
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