JENNINGS — Jeff Davis Parish students who do not wear a mask on campus will not be allowed to attend school beginning Monday.

Superintendent Kirk Credeur said Friday that each school has been given the procedure to share with parents of students planning on attending school without a mask on Monday.

Parents will be notified of the number of days students have attended school without a mask, which is a violation of the statewide mask mandate issued by the governor, he said.

“Beginning Aug. 23 children will not be allowed to enter the campus without a mask,” Credeur said.

Parents will be offered a virtual option through the schools or may choose to educate their children through alternative methods, he said.

During a School Board meeting on Thursday, parents and students voiced concern that students who do not choose to wear a mask are being segregated from those with masks and being forced to spend their school days in libraries, gyms and other locations separate from other students.

“Masks or unmasked every child deserves a right to a public education,” teacher Eden Self said.

Self, who has taught for six years, recently left her job over the mask mandate saying students are being bullied and made to feel guilty for not wearing a mask.

Junior high student Sullivan Mallett said she really wants to go to class, but is being isolated in a gym.“I am stuck in a gym all day, not being able to go to class or see my friends,” she said.

She and three other students have kept themselves busy drawing, making up stories and playing basketball, she said.

“We’re trying to keep ourselves busy, but we are not learning,” Mallett said. “I’d rather be in a class without a mask on and go to the cafeteria with my friends.”

Student Brylei Chaisson said it is sad because she really wants to go to class and see all her friends. Instead she and her brother spend the days in the gym, she said.

“It’s not fun teaching yourself,” Chaisson said.

Bhreten Chaisson, an eighth-grader, said he and his sisters are being punished for not wearing masks.

“We were given violations for doing nothing wrong, in my opinion,” he said. “We were just standing up for our rights.”

Teacher Courtney Lege said she received an email the day before school started informing her that children who refused to wear a mask would be separated and placed in the office. The email also asked her not to share the information with parents, she said.

“It was right before the first day of school, so parents who didn’t agree with this mask mandate would unknowingly drop their children off at school and have them segregated from the other children.”

Parent Brittany Chaisson said her son and daughter have been segregated since the first day of school because they refuse to wear a mask.

“Since Aug 13, they have been kept in segregation in the gym at the school — their choice,” she said. “They are being separated and kept from their friends, classroom and teachers, even thier learning.”

She said students are also being bullied and peer pressured to wear masks if they want to play football, attend classes or be with their friends.

Jeremiah Broussard said his two children — ages 8 and 11 — are being kept apart from other students because they do not want to wear a mask.

“Every day they are forced to be segregated from everyone else in the school … from their teachers, friends and most staff,” Broussard said. “While other students who wear a mask can go to lunch and recess without a mask on, my children are not allowed to do any of that even though no one has a mask on.”

“We are against segregation of our children in school if we choose to send them without a mask,” parent Summer Lejeune said. “My 8-year-old has been segregated from the general school population because we decided to send her to school without a mask, because it goes against our religious beliefs.”

Lejeune has withdrawn her daughter from school because she was left in a band room coloring, playing games and watching cartoons.

Mary Williamson said she removed her daughter from public school after she was segregated and not allowed to go outside or have lunch with her friends.