A coalition of parents whose children attend public schools in California has sued the state alleging that its new COVID guidance violates the California constitution and the state's education code.
Let Them Breathe and Reopen California Schools named in their June 22 complaint for injunctive relief, declaratory relief and petition for writ of mandate, Gov. Gavin Newsom, California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Director and state public health officer Dr. Thomas Aragon, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Dr. Mark Ghaly and Successful Schools Team Lead Dr. Naomi Bardach.
“They haven't done a risk-benefit analysis at all about the pros and cons of wearing masks and they haven't acknowledged that there are any cons and there are cons,” said Jonathan Zachreson, founder of Reopen California Schools. “The data out there doesn't indicate that there’s a need for mandating of masks in schools especially with vaccinations being prevalent. That's why we decided that we had to sue because they're not going to listen and they're going to keep perpetuating these arbitrary guidelines.
When CDPH issued updated guidance for K through 12 schools on July 12, it was stricter than CDC guidance, according to the complaint, and created a spike in donations to the coalition’s Go Fund Me Page.
“We’ve already raised more than $100,000 from parents across California,” Zachreson told the Southern California Record. “The average donation is about $75. So, there's a lot of parents that are angry. You can see that as they show up at board meetings. I don't think the state was anticipating that.”
Let Them Breathe and Reopen California Schools are represented by Aannestad, Andelin, and Corn, the same law firm that successfully sued Gov. Newsom on some of last year’s reopening guidelines, according to a press release.
A May 17 order, signed by Judge Cynthia A. Freeland, in A.A. v Gavin Newsom, requires school district defendants to reopen their schools for in-person instruction to the greatest extent possible at the earliest practicable time.
“They won the TRO and the state eventually settled,” Zachreson said. “In our lawsuit, we have a lot of good data, good lawyers, and good evidence to back what we are seeing and what we are suing over. That’s the difference between our lawsuit and others.”
Let Them Breathe and Reopen California Schools’ joint complaint alleges that school guidance on quarantines are unnecessary, burdensome and discriminatory, and that asymptomatic testing on healthy children doesn't provide assurance of eliminating or reducing school or community spread of COVID-19.
“Kids are missing months of schools because of the quarantine protocols even though they never got COVID and have no symptoms,” Zachreson added. “They don't even know how close they were to someone. The school just said you had close contact, stay home for two weeks and so parents are worried about that. The Let Them Breathe group is focused on masks. We know that the testing protocols in LA, in particular, are coming back with a lot of false positives and keeping kids out of school.”