Posted on 09/29/2021 9:57:24 AM PDT by lightman
A private Christian school in Loveland, Colorado, is planning to file a lawsuit against the local health department after being forced to impose a mask mandate on students under the threat of an imminent shutdown.
Parents at Resurrection Christian School in Loveland, Colorado, were told on Sept. 15 that all persons entering school buildings the next day must wear a mask, by order of the Larimer County Health Department, or their school would be closed. The order allowed for medical exemptions but made no distinction in regards to vaccination status or acquired immunity.
The same evening, school Superintendent Jerry Eshleman vowed in a video message to parents and staff to fight the health department’s edict in court. He urged parents to comply with the public health order for the time being, so that the students wouldn’t have their school year disrupted by a forced school closure while the case was being fought.
“We are fighting for parents’ right to decide to mask or not to mask their child. This is NOT political. It is not a pro vs. anti-mask or vaccination thing,” Eshleman wrote in an email to The Epoch Times. “This whole thing is about our freedoms. Both those established by our Constitution, and those that we feel are rooted in our Judeo-Christian ethos.”
According to Health Department spokesperson Kori Wilford, the public health order came after weeks of consultations between health department officials and Eshleman over sanitation and mitigation measures the school was taking to combat the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus among its 1,600 pre-school through 12th-grade students and 160 staff members.
“RCS (Resurrection Christian School) has been a good partner working with us, but they feel very strongly about masking,” she told The Epoch Times. “They made it very clear that they would not comply with a mask mandate.”
Wilford said that when it was determined that all grade levels at RCS met the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s standard of “outbreak” status, it was time to act decisively and impose a mask mandate on the school. An outbreak is defined as five or more cases in a class or school.
“We do not want to be the Big, Bad Wolf, but we have a duty under the Colorado Revised Statutes and Regulations to not let the outbreak continue,” she said.
Wilford said that the mask mandate is a way to “keep kids in school” so they could receive in-person instruction. The school came into compliance with the mask mandate on the day after the public health order, which included the threat of closure.
“Of course, we always want voluntary compliance. We have the authority to serve a notice of closure, but not to be punitive,” said Wilford.
The public health order cited a state law that authorizes county health departments “to close schools and public places and to prohibit gatherings of people to protect public health.”
Mike Riggs, father of two high school boys enrolled at RCS, told The Epoch Times that the health department’s action brings us “one step closer to a dictatorial state becoming the church.”
“The mask and distancing mandates imposed by the Larimer County officials simply don’t make sense,” Riggs said. “For a year and a half, county officials have been preaching, ‘Follow the science!’ But the science does not support the mask-wearing.”
Riggs said he believes that if his boys were forced to wear a mask for hours during the school day, they would be harmed by inhaling too much carbon dioxide as well as by the high bacteria buildup inside the mask.
“We will keep fighting for our kids,” Riggs said.
Since the interview, both of Riggs’s boys obtained medical exemptions from the family’s physician.
Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have imposed statewide school mask mandates, according to data tallied by Burbio. Five states have bans in place on school mask mandates. The issue is in legal limbo in several others. There is no statewide mandate in Colorado.
Parents Carl and Vicki Sutter also have two boys enrolled at RCS.
Carl Sutter, an area pastor, gave the reasoning behind a Christian’s religious objection to the mask mandate: “God put parents in charge of their children’s welfare and well-being. Children are on loan to us from God. We cannot in good conscience break that trust. We will not bow down to government. We will find the resources to fund a legal challenge to the health department’s order.”
Vicki Sutter has concerns about the political implications of the order.
“The county is trying to drive a wedge in order to insert themselves between parents and child,” she told The Epoch Times.
She noted the comparison between the health department’s actions and the strategy of communist dictator Vladimir Lenin, in which the Bolshevik expressed the need to “rescue children from the harmful influence of the family,” and how the children must come under the “beneficent influence” of a communist education, all with the aim of obliging “the mother to give her child to the Soviet state.”
“Children are not born to the government, they are born to parents,” she said. “It is our responsibility to make decisions regarding their health.
“If we abdicate our role as parents to the ‘beneficent influence’ of Larimer County, it would be an affront to God and contrary to our faith.”
The national dispute over school mask mandates is split sharply along political lines, with Democrats heavily favoring mandates, and Republicans strongly opposing them. The administration of Democratic President Joe Biden has gotten directly involved in the fight over the mandates on the state level. The administration has begun repaying school districts for funds lost through defying state bans on school mask mandates. Biden’s education secretary, Miguel Cardona, launched several “directed” investigations into states that have banned school mask mandates.
Like many of the 800 families with children enrolled at RCS, parents Richard and Christy Fagerlin undertook a considerable sacrifice when they chose a Christian education for their four children at RCS, where the tuition can run from $8,000 to $10,000 per student per year.
According to Richard Fagerlin, the restrictions of the 1 1/2-year pandemic have been particularly hard on his two sons who haven’t yet graduated.
“I think of the losses they endured because of COVID restrictions. They lost the opportunity to play in the state football championship. Both of our boys lost prime recruiting time because of those restrictions,” he told The Epoch Times.
“The kids were so looking forward to getting back to normal this year,” said Christy Fagerlin. “They were so happy. Sure, we had a few cases, and here we go again with harsh restrictions and mask mandates. This time around, we ought to have known better. It seems immoral to tell us they know what’s best for our children.”
“The science and data are clear,” her husband added. “Kids are at little risk from the virus, and we family members are at little risk from them.
“What’s going on here and across the country is a fight for righteousness. We need to stand tall for the truth. Our First Amendment rights are being infringed upon,” he said. “This fight is not about masks. It is about overreach into parental decisions.”
By statute, an aggrieved or interested party has 90 days from the date of the order to request a judicial review in Larimer County District Court; however, the party must continue to obey the directives of the order while the request is pending.
If things ever get out of hand, creeps like him won’t be the ones getting hurt. Only his hapless low-level minions that will pay the price for his despotism.
Also should point out that the number of Covid cases in Colorado is declining without a state masking mandate.
Sounds like the Governor is really bad at math and wants the public to ignore it.
Maskerbation can be very addicting.
My sister has a daughter in 9th grade in a private school in New York state. They all had the shots, the adults in order to keep their jobs and the girl because they felt it made her safer.
I just heard the kid just came back from the doctor because she was feeling ill. Plague test was negative, but the kid now has her THIRD sinus infection this calendar year!
My sister was surprised when I pointed out they might, just maybe, possibly, on an off chance, have been caused by the kid wearing a mask just about everywhere for all these months, despite having had the shot and masks not being required in her school.
Very sad. I thought she knew better than believe what she see and reads and just use her head.
Yeah, I know. Same sort of thing in NV.
The entire thing is stupid at this point. Widespread noncompliance. But the government can target whomever they want and ignore enforcement of whomever they want.
I was in Vegas a few weeks ago, they had lifted the mask mandate and it was fun. Went back for a day trip for business and they re-instituted the mask mandate. But sit at a hotel bar, no mask. I mean, you can’t smoke a cigarette with a mask on can you? A couple of conventioneers came up to the bar wearing masks and said “is this the area where covid doesn’t exist” and I said “yes, right here is a covid free zone you’re safe”. Turns out they sold tactical equipment to military and police.
Took my uncle to lunch yesterday. Mask on outside the door. Walk to table then take mask off. Had to use the facilities, I didn’t bother to put mask back on and nobody even gave me a second look. Put it on as we walked out the door, then off as soon as I got past the door.
It’s theater and soon enough only the places that feel at risk (e.g. losing their liquor or gambling or health code license) will put up some pretense. Turning hostesses, servers, school teachers into law enforcement is a bad idea. The school should institute a mandate, and then the kids should just refuse to comply once inside the property.
“Had to use the facilities, I didn’t bother to put mask back on and nobody even gave me a second look”
VERY wise move!
Chew on this:
There is a lot of REAL science indicating that COVID—like cruise ship noroviruses—is spread primarily be fecal to oral transmission.
Let that sink in.
Remember about a year ago when there were a few quickly buried stories about communities in the New England states that were going to start testing sewerage for COVID?
Let that sink in.
Now consider this: In many States (Pennsylvania and Ohio for sure) the mask mandates were explicit that those in restaurants MUST wear a mask INTO THE RESTROOM where of course that cloth will absorb all toilet odors and other zhit.
Let that sink in.
Then the patron MUST wear the zhit laden mask back into the restaurant so that with every exhale the patrons innocently eating pancakes can get a dose of the restroom zhit.
Let that sink in.
Think this is an overactive imagination?
Check this out:
Your neighbor and I could be friends. 😄
Our neighborhood knows him and I for the signs we continue to display in our yards. My newest one today, Biden lied & people died.
Masking has devolved into nothing more than a nasty, dirty, particularly unhealthy bad habit that simply must be broken to maintain good health.
I am not the most anal retentive (pun intended) person on the planet by a long shot. But one thing I avoid the most is touching surfaces in public bathrooms. Long before covid I learned about hepatitis. I lift the seat with the front of my shoe. I use my pinkie to latch the door. I flush with the sole of my shoe. And soap and wash my hands and use the paper towel to open the door on the way out. Yeah, I’m one of those guys who left a paper towel on the floor by the door. Smart restaurants/bar owners put a trash bin by the door.
I got a whuhan bat flu mast i wear once in awhile
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.