ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt has followed through on previous promises and begun filing dozens of lawsuits against school districts that have a mask mandate in place.
Some of the school districts in the St. Louis area being sued include Webster Groves, Fox, Parkway, Clayton, Rockwood, Francis Howell, Fort Zumwalt, Affton, St. Louis Public Schools, Ladue and St. Charles R-VI.
The suits argue that school districts have no authority to impose public health orders for school children and states that there's no empirical or rational basis that mandatory masking in schools prevents the spread of COVID-19.
Schmitt also claims in the suit that COVID is not a serious health risk to the vast majority of the population, especially children. He states children who wear masks long-term will suffer discomfort, and are less happy and are less capable at school.
The suits seek to have the mandates declared unconstitutional and to force districts to stop enforcing them.
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Education Plus CEO Paul Ziegler says he's surprised by the lawsuits. He says it's distracting schools from trying to keep kids safe and avoiding a return to virtual learning.
"Our school district and school leaders are taxed just trying to keep staff in place during this recent surge of COVID," Ziegler says. "And now we've got one more thing on our plate that really make sense."
Schmitt tweeted statistics about COVID positivity rates of students in different schools districts, stating that some districts without face mask mandates have lower positivity rates than some districts with mask mandates.
"Forced masking of kids is ineffective but the evidence of psychological harm is mounting," he stated. "DHSS COVID-19 data in Missouri’s school districts in the new year show that non-masked districts fared the same or better than masked districts."
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