PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A federal judge has lifted an order that required all students and staff in the Perkiomen Valley School District to wear masks during the school day. A Villanova law professor says the heat on this case will be turned down to a simmer, but it’s still one to watch.
Federal judge Wendy Beetlestone lifted the preliminary injunction that required universal masking for all students and staff in Perkiomen Valley school buildings during the school day. She pointed to a drop in cases and changing CDC guidance.
She instituted the masking requirement after parents of three children with asthma filed suit, saying the district’s move to make masks optional on Jan. 24 was a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“Her initial opinion on how to how the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act apply to these kinds of cases was pretty strong in terms of how she read those statutes, and what they required on the part of school districts," Villanova law professor Michael Moreland said Monday.
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Moreland says since the start of the pandemic, courts have been tasked with deciding who is best positioned to make decisions, whether it's elected officials or public health experts.
He says it makes sense that Beetlestone has connected the case to CDC guidance, as otherwise it would be just a battle among experts on the value of masking.
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