Some Students in Virginia Could be Forced to Wear Masks Despite Governor Youngkin’s Mandate Ban
“settlement clarifies that parents of disabled children can request that the students’ peers be required to wear masks”
Some people are just determined to keep the pandemic going, no matter what.
FOX News reports:
Virginia students in certain schools could be required to wear masks despite Gov. Glenn Younkin’s mandate ban
Disabled students can request that their peers be required to wear masks in class in 12 Virginia schools after a group of parents filed and won a lawsuit challenging Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin’s executive order that ended the statewide school mask mandate in favor of parents choosing to mask or not to mask their children.
Parents at 12 schools filed a lawsuit in February to challenge an executive order from Gov. Glenn Youngkin as well as a new state law giving parents the right to exempt their children from mask mandates that were in place at schools at the time.
The parents who sued said that under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, requiring masks is a “reasonable accommodation” for students at high risk of complications from COVID-19.
In a ruling on Wednesday, the Commonwealth affirmed that students wearing masks is a “reasonable accommodation” to protect a child with disabilities, as part of a settlement in the Seaman et al. vs. Commonwealth of Virginia et al. lawsuit.
The settlement clarifies that parents of disabled children can request that the students’ peers be required to wear masks.
The school district then is required to engage in an “interactive process” to determine whether peer masking is necessary. The settlement says schools can also consider alternatives solutions like social distancing, ventilation improvements, and teachers wearing masks.
“This pandemic has been hard on everyone. It’s been especially hard for medically complex children, children with disabilities, and those at high risk for COVID-19. This settlement is a step toward righting a wrong. Children like mine should not be told they cannot participate safely in school or that they have to be segregated. They have a right to the same education as every other child. As adults, it’s our responsibility to make sure that we include everyone in our decisions and come up with solutions that provide equity in school,” Tasha Nelson, a plaintiff parent, said in a statement.
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Comments
The second we see the word equity we automatcally know it is complete BS.
Fine. Bill the parents of the disabled student for the price of the masks.
Mean and cruel? Probably. But, it is more bluff-calling, at least in my view.
That’s hardly going to cost anything. They’ll probably gladly pay it for the sake of forcing everyone at the school to dance to their tune.
Perhaps the answer is to find some deaf students who rely on lipreading and countersue demanding a “reasonable accommodation” of banning masks altogether, and certainly on teachers.
The tyranny of the minority. Your child, for whatever reason, is handicapped. My child is, CURRENTLY, normal. You have no legal / moral / ethical standing to force my child to accommodate your child’s deficiency – while simultaneously impeding his own social and cognitive development by forcing him to wear a useless mask. Your child should be isolated from the general student population, and educated in an environment that can accommodate his afflictions. Leave my child alone…
I agree with you completely. However, the social engineers decided long ago that even the profoundly handicapped child is to be mainstreamed into the regular classrooms, all in the name of what is “fair’.
it goes back to the idea that the maskers believe that masks are harmless. “What harm does it do you to wear a mask? None. you are just a mean person.”
-I had one I dearly loved in that group. And to this day she cannot understand that our (the rest in our homeschool group) objections to masks were not “muh freedom” or “rebel against authority” or anything else besides masks are dangerous. Period. Full stop.
“The parents who sued said that under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, requiring masks is a “reasonable accommodation” for students at high risk of complications from COVID-19.”
Or it would be, if masks did jackshit.
cut off state funds
The Commonwealth agreed to this. Now it’s bound by the settlement.
What happens when a child that cannot be masked for medical reasons e.g. breathing difficulties, is told by the school they’re required to imperil their health and wear a mask lest they potentially imperil the health of a disabled child?
Would it be a battle of the lawsuits, courts having to decide whose rights rule supreme?
Simple. They get a reasonable accommodation in the form of an exemption from masking.
More complicated is the kid whose disability make him depend on other people being unmasked. The obvious example is deaf kids who depend on lipreading, but another (quite rare but still genuine) example is Mike Williamson’s wife, who is traumatized by masks; not only can’t she wear one, but she suffers severe distress at seeing other people wear them.
I assume the district wanted to remask all the children that’s why they agreed to the settlement. We see friendly lawsuits all the time at the Federal level doing this. I don’t understand how the district can agree to a settlement that allows them to violate state law by not permitting the other students to go unmasked. The reasonable accommodation would be to let the plaintiffs wear masks if they want, which I presume was already permitted.
What district? Where does a district come into it? The parents sued the Commonwealth, and now they’ve settled. The Commonwealth is bound by its agreement.
Also, an executive order is not state law, and even if it were, the ADA is federal law which overrides it. So a district could acknowledge that obeying state law would violate federal law, and thus the state law is invalid. But that’s irrelevant because no district is involved in this case.
All masks do is if you are symptomatic some of your cough droplets will not spread as far. However every school my son has gone to if you are symptomatic you are supposed to stay home anyway, that was the rule before, during and after covid. So if people just follow the old rule of keeping a sick kid home there is no need for a mask.