3 Richland board members say they didn’t break laws. What the WA governor’s office says | Opinion

Did three Richland School Board members break the law when they voted to defy the Washington state mask mandate last year?

That question is at the heart of the effort to recall board members Audra Byrd, Kari Williams and Semi Bird.

To those in charge of the recall, the answer is obvious. Of course, they broke the law.

But Byrd, Williams and Bird and their supporters insist no laws were broken, suggesting that Gov. Jay Inslee’s executive orders during the COVID-19 pandemic were not legally binding.

As this debate over definitions divides the community, we thought it would be helpful to get clarification from the top.

So we reached out to the governor’s office and asked the basic question: Was the governor’s mask mandate a law?

This is the reply we received from Mike Faulk, deputy communications director and press secretary for Inslee.

“I’ve seen this tortured pseudo-legal argument off and on since 2020, and there’s just no substance to back it up. Not in case law nor any scholarly work. It seems like a purely rhetorical argument, so confoundingly misguided it is hard to know where to begin. The state was taken to court on the constitutionality and lawfulness of the mandates dozens of times, and the state won every time.”

“The mandates were authorized by the law and backed by the law. They were enforceable under the law. People who violated them opened themselves up to action under the law,” he said.

So to be clear — mandates and laws carry the same power and the same weight. If not obeyed, there are consequences.

The difference between them is how they come to be. Washington state laws are created and approved through the legislative process, while mandates come from a governor in times of crisis.

And it was the Legislature that gave Gov. Inslee those sweeping emergency powers. Check out RCW 43.06.220 if you want to see the language for yourself.

As the name implies, mandates are mandatory.

Byrd, Williams and Bird had no legal authority to go against the COVID order and make masks optional. And they should have known that.

To insist now that their actions broke no laws is disingenuous.

That’s especially true in light of the email response Byrd received from Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal just days before she voted to defy the mask mandate.

She emailed Reykdal, telling him, “Quit being a coward and stand up for what is right for these kids.”

He replied, in part, that, “I have a legal responsibility to follow the law. I took an oath, like you did, to follow the law. I have to remind you that willful violations are against the law. That’s not a threat, that is responsible governing.”

That email exchange was dated Feb. 10. Byrd ignored Reykdal’s words at the following Richland School Board meeting on Feb. 15 and defied the mask mandate anyway.

In addition, Semi Bird was recently quoted on FOX News saying that, “It’s important for people to understand that the Washington state mask mandate was not a law, so a law was never passed to enforce this.”

Again, mandates and laws are the same thing.

Unfortunately, saying “no laws were broken” because the mask mandate was a “mandate” is a falsehood being believed by constituents and some Herald letter writers.

After the reckless vote to make masks optional, Richland School Superintendent Shelley Redinger closed schools for two days because staff wasn’t prepared and there was a risk of losing state funding — because the district would be in violation of the law.

In the end, students ended up continuing to wear masks to school until Inslee formally lifted the order.

With all the warnings and advice from attorneys and district officials, Byrd, Williams and Bird had to have known they were breaking the law when they voted to make masks optional — no matter how they frame it now.