Shelby County asks judge to clarify mask requirements

Shelby County has asked a federal judge to clarify whether students in the county will be required to wear masks once new COVID-19 legislation takes effect next week.

Expected new laws preventing mask requirements and ceding authority from the county to the state could be in competition with a court order from September that blocked Gov. Bill Lee’s order allowing parents to opt students out of school mask requirements and required the health department to enforce its health orders.

The county wants to know what its obligations will be under new state laws, and it asked the judge to let them know quickly, filing the motion on an “emergency basis.”

Lee has indicated he will sign the new legislation, passed in the early hours of Saturday Oct. 30, by the end of the week. Among several restrictions, the new laws will prohibit public schools and governments from requiring masks unless conditions pass a threshold only seen during the worst weeks of the COVID-19 surges.

The county entered the motion Thursday in the federal court case that successfully sought to block the optout order by arguing the order was a violation of federal disability law.

U.S. District Court Judge Sheryl H. Lipman ruled on the preliminary injunction in September, allowing the Shelby County Health Department to implement its mask requirements. The current health directive still requires masks indoors in schools in most instances and recommends them in other settings in the county.

If the preliminary injunction blocking the opt-out order stays in place, Shelby County wants to know if, under the court’s order, it has discretion in “evaluating health metrics, such that it can in the future alter its directives to schools regarding face coverings in response to improved conditions.”

Shelby County continues to report relatively low numbers of COVID-19 cases since coming down from the peak of the delta variant surge in August, but medical experts have said the local vaccination rate could not be sufficient enough to prevent another winter surge. Wearing masks mitigates the spread of the virus, experts have said.

Lee has appealed the preliminary injunction ruling to the Sixth Circuit, and appealed similar rulings in similar cases in middle and east Tennessee. The governor has requested to consolidate the three appeals.

Laura Testino covers education and children’s issues for the Commercial Appeal.

JOE RONDONE/THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL Fifth-grader Randy Butler works from inside his desk partition at Riverwood Elementary Monday as Shelby County Schools hold their first day of in-person learning since closing schools last March to safeguard staff and students from the COVID-19 pandemic.