A San Diego Superior Court judge has granted a parents group’s motion for reconsideration after having dismissed their lawsuit challenging Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mask mandate in public schools.
Let Them Breathe, a group of some 30,000 parents advocating for mask choice, sued the state in July alleging nine causes of action, including a violation of the Emergency Services Act (ESA). But on Nov. 12, San Diego Superior Court Judge Cynthia Freeland dismissed the action stating in her decision that the state's testing and quarantine guidance are mere recommendations, not mandates.
On Dec. 15, however, Freeland changed her mind.
“Our lawsuit against the state mask mandate had been dismissed because the state was able to hide behind the governor’s emergency order and right after that ruling, the governor extended the emergency order but he made it more narrowly tailored and very specific to mainly healthcare and some other things that have to do with facilities and licensing,” said Sharon McKeeman, founder of Let Them Breathe.
As a result of the reversal, a hearing is set for Jan. 28.
“That is when we will basically be asking the judge to resume the lawsuit and if she decides not to have that dismissal of the lawsuit stand, then we would get to come back into court and actually argue what we wanted in the first place, which is the actual science of masking,” McKeeman told the Southern California Record. “The legalities of it which are that masking is not necessary, the masking is ineffective and it's harmful to our kids.”
Last week, Gov. Newsom announced a new mask mandate for the vaccinated and unvaccinated to wear a mask indoors until Jan. 15 due to the new COVID-19 variant, Omicron, according to media reports.
But McKeeman argues that it doesn’t actually give the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) the authority to put a mandate in place for private businesses.
“That’s why we're seeing a lot of people, businesses, mayors, and community leaders not complying because this is more of an announcement from the CDPH and it just proves our point that they don't really have the powers under this emergency order to keep students or anyone else masked,” she said.
On Dec. 10, McKeeman's sister group, Let Them Choose, also sued Santa Monica's Palisades Charter High School, which is within the Los Angeles Unified School District, for mandating student COVID-19 immunization. However, the school succumbed to the pressure rather quickly.
"Palisades went ahead and said on Dec. 15 that they would delay excluding unvaccinated students until next fall 2022 but they still have a mandate in place," McKeeman said.