An association of parents have organized to stop the Los Angeles Department of Public Health from imposing yet another mask mandate.
The Alliance of Los Angeles County Parents sued the agency in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging that children will be irreparably harmed.
“What we are trying to do is make sure that our county department of public health is not issuing arbitrary and capricious orders, and they continue to do that,” said attorney Julie A. Hamill who is representing the plaintiffs. “Barbara Ferrer has indicated an intent to do it again by saying this is simply a pause that will be reimplemented when cases rise.”
Ferrer, who is director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, announced on July 14 that if rising COVID-19 cases do not subside, indoor masking would be required again, according to media reports.
“We’re just trying to let our kids have normal lives like the kids in other states who have been able to enjoy their childhoods without restriction but our kids here in LA county, their sports programs keep getting canceled,” Hamill told the Southern California Record. “They keep getting kicked out of school and camp and childcare because of all of these arbitrary capricious policies.”
As previously reported in Deadline, Ferrer put the looming mask requirement on hold last week.
“The county is saying it's not because of public outcry,” Hamill said. “It's because the numbers went down but that's just simply not true. Barbara Ferrer picked a new set of numbers to use instead of using the CDC numbers, which she said she was going to use. So, she was able to cherry pick some data to say that she's pausing the mask mandate.”
Hamill is the current chair of the Rancho Palos Verdes Planning Commission.
The allegations in the verified petition for writ of mandate include violations of the equal protection clause because mask mandates are much more heavily enforced against children.
“These mask mandates really are child mandates because our children lack agency,” Hamill added. “They're legally forced to be in a school where they're spending about six to eight hours fully masked. Adults aren't forced to go to restaurants. They're not forced to go to the grocery store and if they wanted to, they could stay home all day. For adults, you're only masking when you're in and out of a public space, which is not six to eight hours straight during the day.”