The Missouri Attorney General’s Office has sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Fox C-6 School District demanding it stop enforcing health policies aimed at mitigating the spread of COVID-19.
Attorney General Eric Schmitt sent the letter Thursday (Dec. 9) to the Fox district after receiving an email from a district parent about the district’s modified quarantine policy, which allows students who are potentially exposed to COVID-19 in a school setting to continue attending classes in person if they wear a mask and take other precautionary steps like eating lunch separated from other students.
Superintendent Paul Fregeau sent a letter to district parents today (Dec. 10) addressing the attorney general’s letter.
“Fox C-6 is currently reviewing the Attorney General’s communication along with the recent court decision to determine its effect on any portions of our COVID mitigation measures,” Fregeau said.
Schmitt, a Republican running for the U.S. Senate, issued a letter Tuesday (Dec. 7) to local public health agencies and school districts informing them that a judge’s ruling last month invalidates all COVID-19 health orders.
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 clause affecting the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government.
The case, Robinson v. Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, claims rules issued by DHSS authorizing the department or local health agency directors to put “discretionary ‘control measures’” in place, such as orders “affecting individuals, schools, organizations, businesses or other entities are invalid. That includes closing schools or places of public assembly.
In his ruling, Green said the rules violate the separation of powers principles of the Missouri Constitution because they “place the creation of orders or laws, and enforcement of those laws, into the hands of an unelected official.”
Fox Board of Education members, who are elected, have voted on the district’s mitigation policy every 30 days since the school year began Aug. 24. The school board is scheduled to review and vote on Fox’s mitigation policy at the next board meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 14, at the Fox C-6 Service, 849 Jeffco Blvd., in Arnold.
The orders from Green’s decision go into effect Dec. 22, the DHSS reported.
“As part of its regular review and approval of our safety plan, the (Fox Board of Education) will take action on the district’s COVID efforts prior to the Dec. 22 date when the Cole County order becomes final,” Fregeau said in his letter to parents. “In the meantime, we will maintain the health protocols currently in place at Fox.”
On Wednesday (Dec. 8), Schmitt created an email address, illegalmandates@ago.mo.gov, and asked parents to report school districts that are enforcing COVID-19 orders.
A Fox parent sent a message to the Attorney General’s Office saying the district was still “contact tracing and doing modified quarantines.” The message said the parent’s child was being forced to wear a mask and eat lunch alone on a stage in a small gym after being “deemed a close contact of a positive COVID case.”
The parent’s message said the modified quarantine policy violates the Cole County ruling.
In his letter to the Fox district, Schmitt ordered the district to stop enforcing all mandates, written or verbal, and imposing student masking requirements, forced or coerced vaccinations, quarantines or other “health orders” that in any way inhibit or prohibit students from exercising their right to free and open education.
Schmitt also wrote he will “engage the full resources of the Missouri Attorney General's Office to ensure that no student will have his or her rights violated by unlawful and unconstitutional mandates” if the district does not abide by his demands.
The letter said the Attorney General’s Office has opened an investigation into the Fox district’s actions and alleged failure to follow the law.
Schmitt’s letter is addressed to Dr. Ryan Sherp, Superintendent. Dr. Paul Fregeau is Fox’s superintendent, and Sherp is the principal at Fox High School.
The district began the school year requiring students, staff and visitors at Fox buildings to wear masks if the county has a high COVID-19 transmission rate.
The board voted unanimously Nov. 16 to change the district’s mask policy to strongly recommend wearing face coverings but not requiring it.
However, the board also agreed that if the COVID-19 positivity rate among students and staff at any district school rises above 2 percent, then masks will be required at that building.
If that happens, masks will be required in the building for at least 14 calendar days after the positivity surpasses 2 percent, and the positivity rate would have to fall below that threshold before masks are optional again.
Masks are still required on school buses, which is federally mandated.
“Please know that we continue to receive and evaluate guidance from the federal, state and local levels, as well as feedback from our families, to help inform our safety and mitigation measures,” Fregeau said. “We will continue to keep our community informed of any changes to our protocols as we move forward together.”
