FRANKLIN SQUARE, N.Y. (WCBS 880) — A Long Island mother filed a lawsuit against the Franklin Square School District on Thursday, claiming her 11-year-old daughter is being forced to wear a face mask despite a medical exemption.
The 11-year-old girl wore a mask to her first day of school, but according to attorney Sujata Gibson, she has a note from her doctor giving her a medical exemption from wearing any type of face covering.
Gibson said the school district is now breaking the law by refusing to let the child attend school without a mask.
“It’s illegal in many ways. The most basic way is that the regulation itself says that you're supposed to be exempt if you're medically unable to tolerate a mask or if it impairs your physical or mental health. So that's very clear,” she said. “There's nothing in the law that empowers the school to just decide that they're going to substitute their judgment for this child's doctor.”
The attorney says the child suffers from a respiratory issue and has certain mental health issues that make her exempt from wearing a face covering.
“This is a little girl who has pretty serious asthma, she's been in the emergency room several times with her asthma and the masks just don't work for her with her physical condition,” Gibson said. “And she also suffers from anxiety and so being unable to breathe really triggers that.”
Gibson filed a lawsuit against the district and noted that the family is not looking for money, just for relief so the child can go to school without anxiety.
“It's really horrible, she had been a straight A student, a model student. She’s never been in trouble in her life and all of a sudden, they were constantly harassing her, calling her into the principal's office and anytime she took [the mask] down, she’d get written up.”
The district said that it does not comment on pending litigation.