Deplorable:
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt renewed threats Tuesday to sue school districts that require masks, saying the decision should be left to parents.
Schmitt, a Republican who has long pushed the state’s school districts and health agencies to drop coronavirus prevention measures, wrote in a statement that school officials lack the authority to enact public health orders. He cited a November ruling by a circuit court in Cole County which said that the state’s health department cannot delegate disease-control authority to local health departments.
“It’s far past time that the power to make health decisions concerning children be pried from the hands of bureaucrats and put back into the hands of parents and families, and I will take school district after school district to court to achieve that goal,” wrote Schmitt, who in 2020 sued the Chinese government, accusing it of lying about, then failing to contain, the coronavirus.
Doug Hayter, executive director of the Missouri Association of School Administrators, told the Missouri Independent that the attorney general is misreading the law, which gives school boards the power to adopt rules needed in their districts.
After the Cole County decision, Schmitt sent letters to schools and health agencies telling them to stop enforcing mask mandates and quarantine orders. He warned of potential consequences for those that failed to comply.
His threat of lawsuits comes in the midst of an explosion of coronavirus infections, with cases and hospitalizations hitting pandemic peaks in recent weeks. Multiple school districts have recently imposed new mask rules, according to the Missouri Independent. In Kansas City, where a mandate was put in place by the city council, Mayor Quinton Lucas said the rule would remain.
“Regardless of any threats issued today,” he said in a tweet Tuesday, “Kansas City’s school mask rule applies to school buildings in our city and we will defend it in court, if and as necessary.”
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt renewed threats Tuesday to sue school districts that require masks, saying the decision should be left to parents.
Schmitt, a Republican who has long pushed the state’s school districts and health agencies to drop coronavirus prevention measures, wrote in a statement that school officials lack the authority to enact public health orders. He cited a November ruling by a circuit court in Cole County which said that the state’s health department cannot delegate disease-control authority to local health departments.
“It’s far past time that the power to make health decisions concerning children be pried from the hands of bureaucrats and put back into the hands of parents and families, and I will take school district after school district to court to achieve that goal,” wrote Schmitt, who in 2020 sued the Chinese government, accusing it of lying about, then failing to contain, the coronavirus.
Doug Hayter, executive director of the Missouri Association of School Administrators, told the Missouri Independent that the attorney general is misreading the law, which gives school boards the power to adopt rules needed in their districts.
After the Cole County decision, Schmitt sent letters to schools and health agencies telling them to stop enforcing mask mandates and quarantine orders. He warned of potential consequences for those that failed to comply.
His threat of lawsuits comes in the midst of an explosion of coronavirus infections, with cases and hospitalizations hitting pandemic peaks in recent weeks. Multiple school districts have recently imposed new mask rules, according to the Missouri Independent. In Kansas City, where a mandate was put in place by the city council, Mayor Quinton Lucas said the rule would remain.
“Regardless of any threats issued today,” he said in a tweet Tuesday, “Kansas City’s school mask rule applies to school buildings in our city and we will defend it in court, if and as necessary.”
