Three frustrated parents have taken legal action against the Loudoun County School Board.
The plaintiffs, Kristen Barnett, Heather Yescavage and Colin Doniger, filed a lawsuit in Loudoun County circuit court against the board for ignoring Gov. Youngkin’s mask order.
For instead of giving families the ability to opt-out of school mask mandates, students at Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) face immediate suspension if they refuse to mask up.
A letter from the district read in part, “A student who is suspended because of non-compliance with COVID-mitigation measures may return to school only when they agree to follow COVID-mitigation measures throughout the entire school day and at all indoor school-related events …”
As FOX5 DC reports:
The parents want the school system to follow Governor Youngkin’s Executive Order which allows a parental opt-out on student face masks in schools.
“Despite belatedly allowing students to return to Loudoun County Public Schools, the Board continues to demand that they wear restrictive facemasks for up to seven or eight hours a day — imposing physical, psychological, and developmental consequences that could be severe,” the court documents state.
BREAKING: A group of Loudoun County parents have filed a lawsuit against the Loudoun School Board for ignoring @GlennYoungkin‘s Exec. Order that allows a parental opt-out on student face masks in schools. Thank-you Governor for fighting for parents! pic.twitter.com/xHvQ0N5oT5
— Virginia GOP (@VA_GOP) February 1, 2022
“Virginians are currently free to eat at restaurants, stroll shopping malls, go bowling, watch the NFL playoffs at a local tavern, and engage in innumerable other outdoor activities – all without wearing masks. Yet children in Loudoun County’s public schools remain trapped in 2020-era pandemic policies that are increasingly difficult to justify as we approach the two-year anniversary of COVID-19’s arrival in the United States.”
Days after Governor Youngkin’s decision to rescind the commonwealth’s mask mandate, the Loudoun County School Board school system said in a statement that it had voted to continue the mandate, following the recommendation of Superintendent Scott Ziegler.