WILLIAMSVILLE, N.Y. — Some parents in the Williamsville Central School District are making their voices heard about masks in schools.

State Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt joined parents outside Casey Middle School Tuesday night to protest the school's mask mandate.

Following the protest, the group spoke directly to members of the Board of Education at a public meeting. There, parents pleaded with board members to become more vocal and push the state to end the mandate.

Many of the parents say they remain unsure of the true effectiveness of the masks, especially if children are not social distancing outside of school.

"I think that the day has just about arrived that local control of the school district needs to be restored to you, the board members, and you, the teachers and superintendents," said one parent. "We need more strong leaders. Please be that leader, please be that voice for us as parents and stand up so you can take control back of the day-to-day operations of the district."

"If you're in summer school right now, they have to have the masks on even though there may only be four kids in the classroom," said Senator Ortt. "But at the same time these same kids are out at sporting events, they're out at restaurants, they're almost everywhere else in sight at this point without masks. And yet they come to school, they have to have the masks on. The more our society reopens, which is a good thing, the harder it is to justify the mask mandate."

Spectrum News 1 has reached out to the district for comment.

Tuesday night was Dr. Darren Brown-Hall's first Board of Education meeting as the new Williamsville superintendent.