Pennsylvania Ping!
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Posted on 09/03/2021 5:30:21 PM PDT by lightman
The Republican leader of the state Senate and a group of parents filed a lawsuit Friday seeking to overturn the Wolf administration’s new mask mandate for Pennsylvania schools.
The governor’s spokesperson dismissed what she called the GOP’s “effort at undermining public health.”
The suit, filed in Commonwealth Court, asserts that Acting Health Secretary Alison Beam failed to comply with state law when she ordered masks to be worn in all Pennsylvania public and private schools, as well as child care facilities.
The masking order isn’t valid because it didn’t go through the state’s regulatory review process, the lawsuit said. It also accused the Wolf administration of trying to circumvent newly approved constitutional amendments limiting a governor’s emergency powers.
“The Secretary of Health’s order subjects healthy, non-infected teachers, children, students, staff, and visitors ... to the wearing of face coverings,” the suit said. The plaintiffs, it said, are “not patients, they are healthy, non-infected children.”
Pa. Gov. Tom Wolf defends order for masks in schools, cites COVID-19 surge and inaction of school boards, lawmakers Pa. will require masks in schools: Questions and answers
The plaintiffs include Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, R-Centre; Rep. Jesse Topper, R-Bedford; two private Christian schools; and parents in three public school districts.
The parents said in affidavits that they intend to send their children to school without masks, claiming Beam’s order is illegal.
The lawsuit seeks an injunction against the masking order.
Lyndsay Kensinger, the spokesperson for Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, said Friday that the health secretary’s authority is “clearly outlined in existing law.”
“We need Republicans to stop spending their time undermining public health and instead encourage people to get vaccinated,” she added.
The health secretary’s order, which is set to take effect on Tuesday, will require students, teachers, and staff to wear face coverings when inside, regardless of vaccination status.
Wolf said this week that a universal, statewide order was necessary after most of Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts did not impose their own mask mandates. State health officials said more than 5,000 students have tested positive for the coronavirus since the start of the academic year.
Masking has been the subject of heated debate at recent school board meetings, with parents arguing for and against it.
At least one superintendent, in the Hamburg School District, said he will keep masking optional unless the school board tells him to make it mandatory. The board plans to meet Tuesday night.
“I’m between a rock and a hard place, and quite frankly, I don’t know what to do,” Hamburg Superintendent Richard Mextorf said in a video posted on the district’s website Thursday.
“I don’t know what do to here, whether I’m supposed to follow the guidelines from the state, or whether I’m supposed to follow the directives from the board. And the board was very explicit and made it clear they were the only ones who could change the decision relative to masks,” he said.
Not surprisingly, our GOP District Attorney published a memo today--sent to all law enforcement--stating that they are NOT to issue a citations for failing to wear masks because his office WILL NOT PROSECUTE.
Pennsylvania Ping!
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Related:
Link only (USA Today affiliate)
Heck, the school will just suspend the students. Prosecution for something that would not be upheld in court is a walk in the park compared to the potential ding a vindictive school administrator can put on your kids record.
Such in-your-face propaganda-speak.
Yeah well about that....all colleges get are grade transcripts anyway. Most of what happens in a school system with a kid stays in the records there unless the former student agrees to the records’ release. Letters of reference is the thing that a student may have trouble getting if an administrator has it in for that student.
Which county is that?
Heck, the school will just suspend the students. Prosecution for something that would not be upheld in court is a walk in the park compared to the potential ding a vindictive school administrator can put on your kids record.>>> Maybe but i think the school boards are getting the idea that parents aren’t going to put up with this shiiite. Out last night to large local restaurant no masks. Delco PA. People are going about their business without masks they are not gonna let schools mess with their kids.
Ok thanks.
We’re in Berks Co where Hamburg is as well.
Our district is doing much the same as Hamburg and having a board meeting this Tuesday.
Our district does NOT want masks. Perkins are circulating!!
Petitions
. . .
Interesting. I wonder how Red Land (York county) vs. Cedar Cliff (Cumberland county), in the same school district, will work out.
Not sure what delco will do as we have a soros DA. but he has been ok on Chester crime. I did a contact form for COrman thanking him for suing the DOH. IT’s a lawsuit not a new legislative act required here. If you read WOlfs statement it is all political.
At least the law suit is something. Corman has been beat up beyond no end lately over dragging his feet on election fraud. I read this law suit more as trying to save his reputation than doing anything real. We’ll see what happens after the election fraud hearings next Thursday. I do not trust him one bit. He still needs to be primaried by someone that has someone that is not part of the establishment. He is another one of these multiple generation establishment politicians.
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