Governor sued over school mask mandate

ZANESVILLE — A Zanesville attorney and her family are challenging a recent order signed by Ohio Gov. Mike Dewine mandating students to wear masks throughout the school day to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Last week, Jeanette Moll, her husband Gary and their school-aged sons filed suit in Muskingum County Common Pleas Court against the Ohio Department of Health, the Zanesville-muskingum County Health Department and East Muskingum Local School District asking to lift the mask mandate.

In her complaint, Moll argued that the actions taken by the state and local agencies are unconstitutional.

Moll and her husband are parents to two students in the school district cited in the complaint, 11-year-old Jonathan in the fifth grade and 9-yearold Jaxson in the third grade.

Recently, the district announced its plans for the upcoming school year in compliance with the state's mask order.

"In requiring that all Ohioans to include minor children wear masks, including for the duration of their school day and bus rides to and from such school day, Defendants continue to endanger and obstruct rather than advance Ohioan's (sic) health, all the while having continuously overinflated the risk of harm to (the) general public and minor children in particular," Moll wrote.

A message was left for Moll on Monday.

East Muskingum school district and board president Matt Abbott's phones went unanswered on Monday. Dr. Jack Butterfield, the medical director of the Zanesville-muskingum County Health Department, could not comment, and a message left at the state health department has not been returned.

In the complaint, Moll pointed to the Ohio Constitution, stating that legislative power for the state is vested solely in the Ohio General Assembly.

Moll continued by arguing that delegating authority to the Ohio Department of Health in the matters of quarantine and isolation has resulted in the transfer of legislative power from the General Assembly to the Department of Health.

Further, Moll argued that the delegation of authority, which has resulted in orders such as the mask mandate, should be considered void for vagueness "as allowing ad hoc decisions or giving unfettered discretion," while citing a case from 2004.

"The mask mandate as applied to each and every Plaintiff is unconstitutional on its face," Moll claimed in the complaint.

Moll said that order threatens constitutionally protected rights, such as the right to parent one's own child.

Referring to past lawsuits against the Ohio Department of Health over COVID-19 issues, Moll stated the ODH has improperly been granted power to create and enforce laws, which impedes on the rights of citizens.

Moll is asking Judge Mark Fleegle, who has been assigned the case, to find the mandate to be unconstitutional, or at least unlawful.