A lawsuit filed by parents against the Cobb County School District for its face mask mandate has been moved to the federal court system.
The district’s attorneys filed a notice of removal on Tuesday in Cobb Superior Court, where five parents had filed their lawsuit (you can read the notice and the suit by clicking here).
A hearing had been scheduled for Tuesday before Cobb Superior Court Judge James Bodiford before the notice of removal was filed.
The suit, filed on April 9, says the district’s mask mandate and contract tracing procedures violate students’ right to privacy under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, as well as the equal protection provisions of the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Another claim by the plaintiffs about “separate but equal” treatment for students unable or unwilling to wear masks is “analogous” to the Brown v. Board of Education ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954 that outlawed racial segregation in public schools, according to a filing by Brandon Moulard, the district’s attorney.
The lawsuit was filed against the seven members of the Cobb Board of Education and Superintendent Chris Ragsdale, who issued the mask mandate before the start of the 2020-21 school year, and seeks injunctive relief.
The suit has been shifted to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, located in Atlanta.
In recent months some parents have been vocal about relaxing the mask mandate, and some spoke out at Thursday’s school board meeting.
One of them was John Hanson, the father of students in West Cobb schools and who is a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
“Please give families back our freedom to be treated equal when we choose not to wear a mask,” he said during a public comment period. “Please stop the toxic policy that’s infected our school district.”
Other parents asked the board and Ragsdale to consider relaxing the mandate for the next school year, but no announcement has been made about whether the policy will continue.
In its weekly COVID-19 case update on Friday, the Cobb school district announced 107 newly confirmed cases among students and staff, the lowest since early March.
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