Another Western PA School Mask Policy Challenged In Court

UPPER ST. CLAIR, PA — A federal lawsuit has been filed in an attempt to stop the Upper St. Clair School District from implementing a mask-optional policy for students and teachers beginning next week.

The 45-page lawsuit against the district and individual school board members seeks an injunction to halt the new policy. The plaintiffs are unidentified district students with disabilities that increases their risk of contracting COVID-19, and their parents.

School directors on Jan. 10 voted 7-2 to reverse the district's universal mask policy and make masking optional effective Jan. 24 regardless of COVID-19 transmission rates.

The lawsuit notes that Allegheny County transmission rates have been high since August, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics.

"The board’s (mask-optional) vote neither accounts for the fact that transmission rate of infection from COVID-19 was still in the “high” category on Jan. 10 and that it continues to dramatically increase because of omicron, nor that universal masking is essential to the prevention of the spread of this airborne disease," the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit states that the district's own records indicate it has just under 100 students that either had cancer or an autoimmune deficiency. Another 300 students have upper respiratory conditions, meaning a total of 400 students have a high or enhanced risk of infection.

"The board’s vote permitting optional masking forces the parents of medically fragile school children with disabilities to make the shockingly unfair or unjust decision of deciding whether to pull their children out of in-person learning which causes mental harm and havoc on the child and family, or face the quantifiably increased risk of physical harm caused by exposure to severe illness or death as a result of COVID-19," the lawsuit states.

A similar lawsuit has been filed against the North Allegheny School District.

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This article originally appeared on the Pittsburgh Patch