Buffalo, NY (WBEN) A judge has ordered Orchard Park and Williamsville schools to reopen full time effective Monday. Colaiacovo issued his ruling(Complete ruling below) Thursday in a 36 page decision.
In his ruling, Colaiacovo stated state guidelines of three feet of social distancing for elementary and six feet for middle and high school were "abritrary and capricious." He adds state health officials could not reasonably explain the reasons for that difference.
Attorney Todd Aldinger represents parents in the Orchard Park and WIlliamsville districts. "This is a great decision for those parents. They've wanted their kids back in school, and they will be back in school Monday, and hopefully this won't be appealed or we won't have a spike that requires us to go back to remote learning," says Aldinger.
Aldinger believes his use of county numbers was a big factor. "It didn't make sense when you had higher rates of transmission in Buffalo and not in these school districts," says Aldinger.
Dana Hensley, a Williamsville parent who filed suit, says the ruling showed there's no difference between six and three feet of distancing. She says the length of the case helped the region get to that 100 case per 100,000 resident threshold Colaiacovo determined to get schools open full time. "We would've reached that arbitrary mark, but the important thing is the guidance was thrown out as arbitrary and capricious," says Hensley.
