A group of anti-vaxxers forced a Portland school board meeting to shut down after they refused to wear masks

• A Portland school board meeting was cut short almost immediately after it began Tuesday night.
• Demonstrators protesting a proposed vaccine mandate for students 12 and up refused to wear masks.

A Portland public school board meeting was cut short Tuesday after several demonstrators in attendance refused to mask up, despite being asked by officials multiple times.

The contentious gathering drew crowds of sign-holding attendees eager to weigh in on a proposed vaccine mandate for students 12 and older in the state's largest district, according to The Oregonian.

Many of the defiant attendees were members of People's Rights, a far-right organization started by anti-government activist Ammon Bundy, according to journalist Sergio Olmos, who was live-tweeting from the meeting. The organization reportedly advertised the meeting and encouraged its members to attend and protest ahead of the Tuesday gathering.

The Oregonian reported some of the protesters admitted they were not from Portland, but traveled to the city from other parts of Oregon and Washington state to attend the meeting.

School board members and security officials directed attendees to wear masks multiple times, but several demonstrators refused to comply. Within minutes of starting, board chair Michelle DePass announced that the meeting would be put on pause and resumed virtually later that evening, KGW-TV reported.

Video from the scene shows attendees erupting into "boos" and jeers following the announcement.

But 45 minutes after the in-person meeting had been suspended, many of the anti-vaccine demonstrators remained in the building, chanting "recall the school board," as the virtual meeting played in the background, according to video from Olmos.

The remaining demonstrators - most of whom had removed their masks fully by this point, according to Olmos - then rearranged chairs in the building's lobby to hold their own impromptu meeting.

Video from the scene shows protesters denouncing the COVID-19 vaccine, which health experts have deemed safe. An FDA panel on Tuesday voted in support of using Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine in younger kids ages 5 to 12.

The incident is one of the latest examples of a troubling new trend of school board meeting erupting as passionate parents debate the merits of proven COVID-19 mitigation methods, such as masks and vaccines.

The Portland Public School Board is set to vote on the vaccine mandate on November 16. During Tuesday's meeting, district officials said 63% of community members who provided written feedback supported the vaccine mandate, KGW8 reported.

Earlier on Tuesday, nearly 500 students in the district walked out of class in support of a district-wide vaccine mandate for older kids, according to The Associated Press.