The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court dismissed a lawsuit contesting the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Pennsbury School District and four other districts’ right to impose mask requirements.
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On Thursday, Commonwealth Court Judge Christine Fizzano Cannon ruled in the case brought by nine parents in February 2022 against the school districts and state agency. The judge ruled the case was no longer relevant because the school systems were no longer mandating masks due to COVID-19.
“The mask mandates in question in this matter have not been in effect in the School District Respondents’ schools for more than half a year,” the judge wrote in her decision. “The current availability of effective vaccines, the CDC’s widespread abandonment of masking recommendations for non-high-risk individuals, and the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of the decreasing virulence of successive variants all suggest that fears of a return to masking requirements are more hypothetical speculation than concrete likelihood.”
The judge concluded that Ortega’s advice “was not an order, directive, requirement or mandate.”
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The parents’ complaint contended that the state education secretary was improper to tell school districts that they could require students and visitors to wear masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. They argued that such requirements are not within the purview of school districts.
Brad Child, a Pennsbury parent who was a plaintiff on the case, said he believes the parents should appeal, but he doesn’t yet know the feelings on the other plaintiffs.
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“I believe we have a strong argument,” he said.
The group Pennsylvania Parents Protecting Children, which opposes masking children to protect from COVID-19, is fundraising to cover the estimated $30,000 cost of the legal fight.
Attorney Peter Amuso, a partner at former district solicitor firm Rudolph Clarke, and attorney Samantha Newell represented Pennsbury School District in the case.
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“Through the school code, our Legislature has granted local school boards broad power to protect students based on local conditions,” said Amuso. “We were proud to protect those broad powers for Pennsbury and our other school district clients, and for all school districts across the Commonwealth. We continue to be ready to assist our clients facing these complex safety issues.”
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