A federal judge has sided with the Cobb County School District in denying a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction sought by parents who’ve filed a lawsuit over the district’s COVID-19 policies.
They’ve alleged their medically fragile students are being denied a proper in-person education under the federal Americans With Disabilities Act because of what they claim are the district’s lacking safety protocols, including a masks-optional policy.
After a hearing Friday morning, Chief Judge Timothy Batten of the U.S. District Court for Northern Georgia in Atlanta said the plaintiffs haven’t proven differing treatment because those policies apply to all students.
“Plaintiffs essentially ask this Court to second-guess Defendants’ operational decision making and wrest from Defendants’ control the authority to decide how to best protect students’ health,” Batten wrote in his order denying them immediate relief. “The Court finds that Defendants have made an informed choice that is neither arbitrary nor unreasonable, and declines Plaintiffs’ invitation to usurp this function of the executive branch.”
(You can read the full order here.)
Batten is essentially making the same argument the district claimed earlier this week in its response to the lawsuit (our story from Thursday), which names Superintendent Chris Ragsdale and the seven members of the Cobb Board of Education as defendants.
Batten continued by saying that “plaintiffs—like all students in Cobb County—were given the option to attend virtual school in lieu of in-person classes. Plaintiffs’ attempt to allege disparate treatment by a facially neutral policy that applies to disabled and non-disabled students alike, and their argument falls well short of the high bar required for injunctive relief.”
The lawsuit, filed by two Atlanta-area attorneys and the Southern Poverty Law Center, demands that the Cobb school district follow U.S. Centers for Disease Control guidance for schools, including universal masking.
That’s the recommendation of Cobb and Douglas Public Health, which filed a declaration on behalf of the plaintiffs.
But in his order, Batten didn’t weigh in on those matters.
“While Plaintiffs may prefer a mask mandate and other stricter policies, Defendants are not required to provide Plaintiffs with their preferred accommodation,” the judge wrote. “So long as Plaintiffs are offered meaningful access to education—and the Court finds that they have been—Defendants have adequately accommodated Plaintiffs and their disabilities and thus, Plaintiffs cannot show a substantial likelihood of success on the merits.”
He concluded by saying that “because Plaintiffs cannot show a substantial likelihood of success of their disability discrimination claim, the Court need not consider the alleged irreparable injury from which they suffer, nor need it balance the equities or consider the public’s interest.”
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