NJ school nurse suspended after pushing back on mask mandate, says it's ‘child abuse'

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NJ school nurse suspended for saying masks harm children

School nurse Erin Pein provides insight on ‘Fox and Friends.’

A New Jersey school nurse was suspended for refusing to wear a mask amid the coronavirus pandemic and argued it’s severely "harming students."

"I've seen kids come in with all kinds of dirty masks, the same mask for weeks, surgical masks to have food and dirt on them," school nurse Erin Pein told "Fox & Friends" Wednesday. "I had a student come to me. He came to the nurse's office and said he couldn't breathe."

The school nurse, who works at the Stafford Township School District, went on to say a student mentioned that he’s been "shockingly" wearing a mask for two weeks and told her he "can’t take" the mask off.

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"How could this be? This kid sleeping and showering in this mask for two weeks? We tried to take it off and we couldn't, so we actually had to cut it off and throw it away," Pein told co-host Brian Kilmeade.

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Pein, 35, said this incident is one of many that she’s seen at the Stafford school, and the nurse is deeply concerned the kids are wearing masks "incorrectly" and decided to make a stand. The Stafford school nurse reached out to her supervisor and mentioned her concerns "weren’t appreciated."

"They just bluntly told me we are going to be following the mandates put in place by Governor Murphy and that includes wearing masks," she told Kilmeade. "I let them know that, as a nurse, I don't feel comfortable enforcing something that I can see and know that is harming somebody."

The suspended Stafford school nurse has three kids of her own and has been a medical professional for 13 years. Pein mentioned in a Facebook video, posted by Republican gubernatorial candidate Hirsh Singh, that the mask mandate is "child abuse."

"I had a kid come down to me. She was wearing a mask. She was crying. She had vomited in class…I pulled her mask off. It was full of vomit. Her mask was full of vomit," Pein said.

She added these young students are suffering from "severe anxiety" and it’s "heartbreaking" to witness.

"Stand up. You can go to America's frontline doctors," Pein argued. "You can get information about legal resources of how you can stand up and protect the kids that we are supposed to protect."

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Pein has been suspended without pay since April 20. The Stafford Township School District has not responded to a request for comment.