“Fisher Delta Field Day_2019_093” by Mizzou CAFNR

Attorney General Eric Schmitt announces a total of 45 district lawsuits, protesting mask mandates.

Jan. 18, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt released a public statement addressing mask mandates in school. Preceding this statement, Schmitt had announced 36 different school districts he planned to sue. Jan. 24, Schmitt revealed nine more districts being sued.

“Last month, I informed a number of school districts that their decision to continue to enforce mask mandates is illegal and must be stopped immediately. Some school districts dropped their mask mandates and quarantine orders, but others continue to defy the law, despite the fact that COVID-19 poses very little risk to children. My office is currently finalizing lawsuits against all non-compliant districts to end the forced masking of schoolchildren, which will be filed later this week,” Schmitt said in his Jan. 18 statement.

Head principal Jeremy Mitchell stated that Parkway is working with experts to deal with the lawsuit and discussing the situation with other districts. Additionally, Mitchell added that school-level mask mandates are being monitored based on district statistics of COVID-19 cases.

“Communities should have the option to do what’s best for their community. What might be best for Parkway might not be best for Hazelwood or Rockwood or Pacific, so I think that local control is important,” Mitchell said. “To make all school districts do exactly the same thing didn’t seem like the best idea.”

Some students are in support of the lawsuit. This stance was demonstrated through a Dec. 6 protest earlier in the school year. Junior Nolan Gaddy believes that students should be able to choose whether or not to wear a mask.

“I think [the lawsuit is] good. I don’t like masks. If you don’t care you shouldn’t have to wear a mask, it shouldn’t be required,” Gaddy said. “Kids haven’t been wearing masks, and they get kicked out of school and it shouldn’t be like that. My teacher is like, ‘put your mask up.’ I can’t breathe. My friend chose not to wear his mask in school, and he got sent to the office for the entire day.”

Other students, however, have a different view of the matter. Senior Ellie West experiences anxiety over possibly exposing her family members to COVID-19 through school.

“Honestly, [the lawsuit] is a waste of money. It doesn’t make sense to be suing all of these school districts for trying to do their best to protect their educators and their students,” West said. “I have a lot of anxiety that I would be the one that would give [COVID-19] to [my grandma] because I don’t know that she wouldn’t survive it and that would absolutely wreck me. It makes me really nervous because I’m going to school, I don’t know where the people around me have been, who they’ve seen, if they’re sick and came to school anyway. People not wearing masks around me makes me really nervous because I’m really focused on my grandma’s safety.”