BOSTON (WWLP) – The state’s education commissioner officially implemented a school mask mandate Wednesday and that decision has caused an outrage in such a short amount of time.

On Wednesday, Commissioner Riley officially implemented a mandate masks in all public K-12 schools in the Commonwealth. Under his new policy masks must be worn indoors until at least October 1. The Commissioner’s approach is very different than the one Governor Charlie Baker had been advocating for.

He wanted local officials to decide if a mask mandate is necessary but for weeks that led to violence against school board members.

“We were seeing a lot of anger and even some violence in some of the communities so, I think the Department of Education was paying attention to this and wanted to step in and divert some of that anger away from the localities,” Beth Kontos told 22News.

So far, over a thousand Massachusetts parents have signed a petition to send kids back to school mask-free. Many of them said they will be filing an exemption request which allows kids to go unmasked if they have a medical condition or a behavioral need.