Anti-mask anger forces Colorado children’s museum to close

By JAMES ANDERSON
Associated Press

DENVER (AP) — A Colorado children’s museum is the latest casualty of harassment by people angry over mask mandates designed to curb the spread of the coronavirus. For decades, the Children’s Museum of Denver at Marsico Campus has been a popular attraction primarily devoted to children age 8 and under. But the museum temporarily closed this week because of escalating harassment of staff by adult visitors angry about a city mask-wearing mandate inside the building. Its doors will stay closed until Feb. 4 to give staff members a break and to study how the museum can respond to aggression by visitors in the future. Across the country, anti-mask protests have taken scary and violent turns. Educators, medical professionals and both private- and public-sector workers have been vilified.