California High School Students Walk Out Over Mask Mandate

''This was a homegrown thing between the parents and then the kids working together to get everyone on board,'' Jennifer Yoder, the mother of an Oak Ridge student, told Fox News. ''It just kept growing and growing. And then they eventually just got up and left those classrooms and ran outside and started their protest.''

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, had been expected to lift the mandate Monday. But the state's health and human services secretary, Dr. Mark Ghaly, said there would be a two-week delay.

According to Yoder, several parents of students at Oak Ridge sent them to school without a mask, and the students were subsequently dismissed from class.

The Twitter account Reopen California Schools posted a video of the protest to its feed, saying ''Dr. Ghaly & @GavinNewsom have started one serious #MaskRevolt in California.''

The school board sent a letter to parents Tuesday afternoon to inform them that it would no longer punish students who do not wear a mask, despite the mandate still being in effect.