Footage of the incident was posted on Twitter by lawyer Ron Filipowski and has already been viewed more than 240,000 times.
It was taken from a recent meeting of the Lee County School Board in Fort Myers, Florida, where several parents queued up to voice their opposition to the introduction of a mask mandate in schools.
Among them was Brian Biggs, a dad and local Fort Myers resident, who approached the microphone wearing a long-sleeved grey shirt emblazoned with the message: “Resist, defy, do not comply.”
After introducing himself, Biggs proceeded with his point.
“I want to talk about the real pandemic: Child sex trafficking,” he began.
“By putting masks on these kids’ face, you can’t identify any of them. So by the nine of you already voting on this, tells me you guys support sex trafficking.”
Biggs pointed directly at the board members during the concluding part of his diatribe, which was greeted with an almost instant rebuke.
“Sir, you’re out of order,” one of the board members replied.
Undeterred, Biggs responded “Good!” as he walked away from the mic.
His comment prompted a smattering of applause from a small section of those present at the meeting.
Despite this opposition, the superintendent of the Lee County School District Ken Savage opted to implement a 30-day mask mandate for all students and staff starting Wednesday, in a move supported by the Lee County School Board.
According to Biggs’ Facebook page, he appears to be the parent of at least one young child. Newsweek has reached out to him for further comment.
His references to child sex trafficking have prompted many to speculate on whether he is a follower of the QAnon conspiracy theory.
The belief that society is being controlled by a secret cabal of Hollywood stars and Democrats is a key tenet of the QAnon conspiracy.
Conservator Pastor Greg Locke is among those to have previously pushed this idea.
In a video posted last June, the controversial Baptist claimed there were a “bunch of pedophiles in Hollywood” and branded President Joe Biden a “jezebel demon.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, meanwhile, was accused of overseeing “child-trafficking” in the clip, which has been viewed more than 1.5 million times.
Biggs’ outburst is just the latest example of the extreme backlash many local authorities are facing from parents opposed to the introduction of masks in schools.
Last week, a father in Michigan issued a thinly-veiled threat to the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners over similar plans, warning them that “there’s a lot of good guys out there ready to do bad things soon.”
