Mike Stewart/AP
- A Minnesota school board meeting turned chaotic Monday when one man grabbed a speaker who was wearing a mask.
- The Eastern Carver County School Board said police presence will be increased at future meetings.
- The Chaska Police Department said no charges have been filed in the incident.
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A fight broke out at a local school board meeting in Minnesota on Monday after a man thanked the board for its decision to impose a mask mandate, according to local reports.
Jonas Sjoberg, a local parent, told WCCO in Minnesota that he went to the school Eastern Carver County School Board meeting to thank the board for making difficult, and sometimes unpopular, decisions related to the coronavirus pandemic. The school board recently passed a mask mandate that will last through October.
Video of the incident shows Sjoberg sitting in a chair wearing a mask, before an unidentified man charges toward him and pulls his phone from his hand. The man also grabs Sjoberg's shirt by the collar and holds onto it. Three others then come between the men and pull them apart.
While it's unclear from the video what caused the altercation, WCCO reported that Sjoberg had tried to take a picture of the man with his phone for later reference because he'd accused Sjoberg of lying to the board. The man got physical after his wife asked Sjoberg to delete the photo, which he refused.
During the meeting, Sjoberg told the board that people in the room protesting the mask mandate might not be representative of the community that the board serves, according The Daily Beast.
"I couldn't tell you what goes through my mind. I'm confused," Sjoberg told WCCO. "When I get outside, I start to realize, oh my goodness I have my button is broken my shirt and oh I have scratches on my chest."
The school district said in a statement Tuesday that it plans to increase the police presence at its future meetings due to safety concerns.
"It is healthy for us to disagree and to seek out more information," the statement read. "It is not okay, and not acceptable, to resort to violence or accuse decision-makers of being Nazis."
In the video of the meeting, someone can be heard over a microphone asking police to come into the room once the men are separated. The Chaska Police Department said in a statement Tuesday that no charges have been filed related to the incident.
Police did not immediately return Insider's request for comment.
Sjoberg, whose daughter attends a private school, told WCCO that "we saw a lot of anger and a lot of negativity."
"So I wanted to come as a community member and say 'Hey, thank you for what you do. I appreciate what you do and I realize that it's tough decisions you guys have to make,'" he said.