Frustrated parents and students are rallying against school mask mandates after nearly two years of abiding by pandemic restrictions that they allege haven't protected them from the virus. 

A group of Chicago-area students walked out of school on Monday after being told they were required to wear masks to attend class, despite an Illinois judge having issued a temporary restraining order against the governor's statewide school mask mandate.  

'I am tired of seeing my kids wearing masks. We abide by the rules, we wear the masks all day at school and work and we still got COVID - including my infant,' Ari Moore, an Oregon mother of three school-aged children, told DailyMail.com. 

Moore - who has followed mandates since the pandemic first broke out - said she takes COVID 'very seriously' and feels 'horrible for families who have lost loved ones' to the virus, but is also concerned about the impact masking has on her kids. 

'My son says he can't breathe well with them on and gets told to pull them up when he pulls it down to breathe,' she said. 'And that is not okay!' 

The push to end mask restrictions comes as COVID cases continue to fall in the U.S., with the country recording a 43 percent drop in daily infections over the past week, down from 469,770 daily cases a week ago to 267,765 as of Tuesday morning and is expected to fall even further. 

The swell of frustration comes as York University in the U.K. published a new study showing that masks make it difficult for children to recognize faces and, in turn, could affect their ability to socialize and make friends, a fear that is echoed by parents worldwide. 

'Angry COVID moms' are fighting restrictions and the lawmakers who 'abandoned their responsibility' to protect America's children by running for Congress.