School reopening triggers lawsuits in Ohio, other states
Communities in Ohio and nationwide have had heated debates about how the school year shouldbegin, with some of those disputes turning into lawsuits. Ohio has only one school reopening lawsuit so far, and it’s an individual school district being sued, according to the Ohio School Boards Association.
That’s not the case elsewhere, as at least fifive states have active lawsuits where teachers, families or schools are suing the state itself.
Ohio lawsuit
A family sued the Upper Arlington school district in Columbus (as well as the Franklin County health commissioner), after the schools announced plans to open the year in an online, remote-learningmodel. The family wants an in- school optionfor those familieswho prefer it.
Their lawsuit says “there is no reliable sci en ti fifi ce vi den ce that establishes a causal relationship between the spread of COVID-19 and options for in-person instruction.” They also argue that the schools werewrong to rely onadvice from the county’s top two health offifficials, as they are administrators, not doctors.
The Ohio School Boards Association fifiled a “friend of the court” brief, asking the court to “preserve the local authority of boards of education.”
“The principle at issue—the right of a board of education to exercise its vested authority to manage its schools and govern its pupils without interference by a few parents who disagree with a board’s decision— hasbroad import for school boards’ decision-making authority, going well beyond the current pandemic,” OSBA said in a fifiling with two other state education groups.
The next deadline for briefs to be fifiled in the case is Sept. 3. In the meantime, Upper Arlington schools are operating entirely via remote learning.
California parents
sue California offifficials banned in-person school in more than half the state’s counties, and two groups of parents sued in federal district court, saying their children would be “deprived of an adequate education.”
The parents say distance learning isles se ff ff ff ff ff f fe ct ive for special needs and lower-income studentswho face barriers to onlinemodels. Their lawsuit cites the due process and equal protection clauses of the Constitution as well as federal laws addressing civil rights and special education.
State offifficials opposed the group’ s request for a temporary restraining order, saying their arguments mis state the health risks of COVID-19. A key hearing is scheduled for Monday.
Florida teachers sue
Florida issued a stateorder that most schools had to make in-person, five-dayper-week school available for families who want it by the end of August or lose funding.
Teachers unions sued the governor andstate education commissioner, arguing that the order violates the state Constitution’s provision for “safe” and “secure” public schools.
On Monday, a judge granted a temporary injunction against the state’s order, calling parts of it unconstitutional. That means individual districts can decide for themselves. But state officials immediately said they would appeal the ruling.
Iowa lawsuit
The school district inIowa City, along with the state teachers union, sued Iowa’s governor and state education department over a partial reopening order that would require in-person school at least half the time.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds pointed to a recently passed law saying schools “shall not take action to provide instruction primarily through remote-learning opportunities” unless the governor approves.
The plaintiff ff ff ff ff ffssayt he law conflflictswith the governor’s Constitutional responsibility to protect the people of the state. They also say state lawgives local schools authority over their education plans, calling this the wrong time for a one-sizefifitsall approach. The state’s largest school district, in Des Moines, fifiled its own similar lawsuit Tuesday.
Other cases
Arguments are scheduled Sept. 11 in Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court in a case where a private school and others argued that local health boards, not the governor, have decision-making authority in a pandemic.
In Oregon, a federal judge denied three Christian schools’ request to be allowed to open despite the governor’s order that allpublic and private K-12 schools stay closed.