A Tennessee law that bans schools from having a mask mandate was blocked by the United States District Court in Nashville.
Just The News said U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw issued a stay on the mask mandates pending a hearing on the Tennessee law against it.
"Given the alleged conflict and the possible confusion this creates for schools in Tennessee, pending an expedited hearing, the parties shall maintain the STATUS QUO as it pertains to students with disabilities and their federally guaranteed rights as of Thursday, November 11, 2021," Crenshaw said in the ruling.
The said law, which was passed in the recent Tennessee legislature special session on COVID-19 issues, bans mask mandates in schools. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee then signed the law last Friday.
The lawsuit was filed against Lee and Department of Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn in behalf of eight students with disabilities also last Friday. The students contested that the law violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Prior to the said law, Lee has also issued an executive order that provides parents the option to be exempted from the mask mandates. However, judges from the counties of Knox, Shelby, and Williamson have similarly blocked it in September. One of the students in the lawsuit filed at the county-level is also one of the six plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed in the district court.
Just The News explained that the "conflict" Crenshaw mentioned in the ruling lies in the "intricate process" schools are faced with in line with the mask mandates since the law prohibits government entities from mandating the wearing of masks. Mask mandates are not to be applied on a district level but "on a school-by school basis."
Before the school could impose the mandate, the law requires that the state actually declare a health emergency for at least 14 days involving 1,000 cases per 100,000 residents. The school, in such a state of emergency, can then impose a 14-day mask mandate for children aged 12 and older, requiring them to use an N95 mask. Children aged 11 and below are to be mandated to use "age-appropriate" masks.
Students with disabilities are also to apply from the school principal a request "for an accommodation related to the disability" following social distancing and masks provided by the school.
"If the principal or president approves the request, then the school shall place the person in an in-person educational setting in which other persons who may place or otherwise locate themselves within six feet (6') of the person receiving the reasonable accommodation for longer than fifteen (15) minutes are wearing a face covering provided by the school," the law stipulated.
In the Knox County lawsuit, the parents contested that Lee's executive order endangers their children--the students with disabilities--who have comorbidities requiring them extra protection from COVID-19 that the maskings can provide. The students with disabilities are said to have "chronic lung disease, a rare brain disorder, and a congenital heart defect."
Crenshaw, who happened to be the same judge who handled the lawsuits on the executive order, stressed in his ruling that the medical situation of the students with disabilities poses them with more danger if the masking mandates are banned in the state.
"That disabled students are at a significantly higher risk for severe infection and are exposed at a higher rate following Executive Order No. 84 is itself an irreparable harm that justifies injunctive relief," Crenshaw said.
