State Attorney General Eric Schmitt is suing Columbia Public Schools and any Missouri K-12 public school requiring students and staff to wear masks. Schmitt, a Republican running for U.S. Senate, says a mask mandate “flies in the face of science, especially given children’s low risk of severe illness and death and their low risk of transmission.”
Melissa Randol, executive director of the Missouri School Boards’ Association, questions the attorney general’s decision and data he is referring to.
Republicans have traditionally supported local control. Randol says she is not advocating for mask requirements but instead wants health experts to help guide schools in their local safety measures.
Schmitt argues that parents and families should be the ones to decide whether children should wear masks to school to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Randol says the lawsuit is a significant erosion of the state’s tradition of local control.
Randol says she is not advocating for mask requirements but instead wants health experts to help guide schools in their local safety measures. She also questions why Schmitt filed a class-action lawsuit instead of requesting an immediate injunction to block mandates from being used while the case plays out in court.
