The Missouri Attorney General’s Office filed lawsuits against 36 school districts around the state today (Jan. 21), including the Fox C-6, Dunklin R-5 and Rockwood school districts. All the districts are being sued because they have required students to wear masks to limit the spread of COVID-19.
Three days ago, Attorney General Eric Schmitt, a Republican running for the U.S. Senate, issued a statement saying he would seek legal action against district’s enforcing mask mandates and quarantine orders.
In the lawsuits, which seek to end mask and quarantine orders in schools, the attorney general says school districts do not have the authority to impose public health orders on students.
Many of the lawsuits also name of parents as plaintiffs, ranging from one parent per lawsuit to 20 in the case of the lawsuit against Rockwood.
Michael Gross, Erin Hein and Shannon Otto are listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the Fox district and are referred to as parents of children attending schools in the district and taxpayers who live within the district’s boundaries.
Melinda McLaughlin and Rowdy Smith are listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Dunklin.
The lawsuits say it is unlawful for school districts to impose mask mandates, saying only the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) has that authority.
Schmitt’s lawsuits also say the “theory” that mask rules help prevent the transmission of COVID-19 have “no empirical or rational basis” and reject “basic principles of sound public health decision-making, medical science, and statistical analysis.”
Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green ruled Nov. 22 that all health orders related to the spread of COVID-19 in the state should be lifted because they violate the state constitution’s separation of power principles. Green said COVID-19 mitigation measures issued by health departments and school districts “place the creation of orders or laws, and enforcement of those laws, into the hands of an unelected official.”
However, school board members and health department board members, who are elected, have voted to put many of the policies in place.
On Dec. 7, Schmitt sent cease and desist letters to school districts across the state ordering them to end COVID-19 safety measures, citing Green’s ruling as the reason districts didn’t have authority to put those policies in place.
Otto and Gross also were the plaintiffs in a case against the Fox district filed by attorney and state Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman on Oct. 20 in the Jefferson County Circuit Court. Coleman, a Republican who has announced her intent to seek a seat in the state Senate in the August primary. The suit was dropped the lawsuit when Fox stopped requiring masks Oct. 29 when the county’s COVID-19 transmission rate fell to the second-lowest level on the Jefferson County Department of Health’s four-color COVID-19 warning system. However, Fox returned to a mask requirement Nov. 8 when cases rose again.
On Nov. 18, Fox stopped using the warning system to dictate when masks would be required, and the Board of Education voted to recommend but not require masks be worn in buildings.
That policy did say, though, that masks would be required in individual buildings if the COVID-19 positivity rate rose above 2 percent among students and staff. When the 2-percent threshold is met, masks are required at that building for at least 14 calendar days, according to the mitigation plan.
On Jan. 11, the board voted to reinstitute a districtwide mask requirement until at least Jan. 21, and today the board voted to extend the requirement until at least Feb. 3.
In the suit against Dunklin, the attorney general says the district did not follow proper procedures to keep its mask mandates in place after the district began the school year requiring masks be worn while walking through buildings or when at least 3 feet of separation is not possible in classrooms. State law says health orders, such as requirements to wear masks, must be voted on by elected officials every 30 days.
The lawsuit says Dunklin announced Nov. 10 that masks would no longer be required because the district’s plan was based of positivity rates. On Dec. 21, the district’s Board of Education members voted that masks would be optional starting Jan. 4, but on Tuesday (Jan. 18), the board said masks would be required again starting Monday (Jan. 24) because of the high number of new cases.
Also on Tuesday, Superintendent Clint Freeman announced in a video on social media that Dunklin students would learn remotely from home staring on Wednesday (Jan. 19) and lasting at least through today (Jan. 21) because of a shortage of staff.
