Parents took to the streets of Montoursville Tuesday morning to protest the state Department of Health’s order that required children to be masked in class or risk being sent home.

About 40 Montoursville Area School District parents marched along Broad Street in the borough carrying signs expressing their anger with the order, which took effect on the day students returned from a long Labor Day weekend.

They proceeded down Arch Street to Montoursville Area High School and then on to McCall Middle School before ending at the District Office where the group began breaking up about mid-morning.

“Our consent as parents has been completely removed by the school district,” one parent told a reporter before the march got underway.

“Our doctors, our school, our government now have complete free rein with our children concerning what they do with their bodies, what they put on their bodies,” the parent said. “Our consent as parents has evaporated into thin air and we’re not okay with that.”

Another mother who marched told a Sun-Gazette reporter that masks “are harmful to children.”

“Our next thing is to call children services (the Lycoming County Children and Youth) to report they are masking our kids,” she said. “It’s not right. Everyone has a right to breathe freely in the United States of America. That’s our Constitution.”

When contacted, Montoursville’s Superintendent Christina Bason was not available for comment on the matter.

Rumors of possible protests at area school districts had been circulating on social media since the masking order was announced last week.

A spokesperson from the Williamsport Area School District reported that they had not experienced any problems as students arrived at district buildings.

Dr. Brian Ulmer, Jersey Shore Area School District superintendent, stated that his district did not have any problems and that very few students arrived without masks or refused to put them on.

“Our morning went rather smoothly,” Ulmer said.

At Montoursville’s protest, signs that read “unmask our children” and “let them smile, let them breathe,” were joined with those of a more political nature, criticizing the governor and the district’s administration for making students wear masks.

The order, which came from the state’s Department of Health, is backed by the Disease Prevention and Control Law of 1955, which districts are required to follow or face penalties.

At one point, borough police were called because protesters were blocking entrances to the high school, but the marchers were told twice at different locations to move to the sidewalk and each time they complied.

There was no property damage and no arrests, police said.