Lawsuit challenges district’s mask policy

Parents allege schools abused their power by instituting mandates

Five parents filed a lawsuit against the Lake Central School Corporation Wednesday “to protect their constitutional rights to attend school” with a mask optional policy.

The 31-page lawsuit — which names Superintendent Larry Veracco and all five school board members — claims that school officials violated the Indiana Constitution, board bylaws and abused their power by instituting COVID19 mandates.

The lawsuit was filed by Justin and Adriana Skains, parents of two students in the district; Theresa Ayi, a parent of four children in the district; and Timothy and Tricia Crowley, parents of three children in the district. The parents are with a group called The Lake Central Majority, which has raised $11,405 for the lawsuit since August, according to the group’s gofundme page.

“Resulting now is a lawsuit to reverse course and return responsibility where it belongs, with parents, as it relates to making medical decisions for their children, as well as ending LCSC’s irrational and arbitrary masking, contact tracing and quarantine policies which violate individual liberty. The lawsuit seeks all just and proper relief,” according to a press release from The Lake Central Majority group.

Veracco said in an email that the corporation “does not comment on ongoing lawsuits.”

After about 20 months into the pandemic, “Americans have returned to normal life” with businesses reopening and sporting events resuming while public spaces “bustle with activity,” according to the lawsuit.

“It seems that everywhere

America is moving forward and beyond the COVID19 restrictions that shuttered countless businesses and transformed daily life. Everywhere, that is, except our K-12 schools,” according to the lawsuit.

While in school, students are “subject to arbitrary, irrational, and unscientific rules regarding face masks, contact tracing and quarantines.” Through various state and local orders and guidance, the school district has “excluded thousands of healthy students from school because the may be asymptomatic carriers or may develop symptoms later,” according to the lawsuit.

Since August, 311 students and 43 staff members have reported COVID-19 positive cases, according to the school district’s data. The district’s total population is 10,651. The delta variant of the COVID-19 virus spreads easier and is two times as contagious as previous variants, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Children are being admitted into hospitals at an increased rate as the delta variant spreads, especially in communities with low vaccination rates, according to the CDC.

The CDC recommends that all schools require universal masking, regardless of vaccine status, because mask limit the spread of germs form one person to another by preventing potential virus particles from spreading in the air.

In Lake County, according to the CDC, COVID-19 transmission is high, with only 60.5% of the population older than 12 years fully vaccinated.

Micah Pollak, an associate professor of economics at Indiana University Northwest, said he has been following COVID-19 data closely and said COVID-19 positivity rates statewide are higher than they were in January.

Statewide, more COVID19 cases have been reported by schools during this academic year compared to the previous academic year, Pollak said. The reason for that, Pollak said, is a combination of the delta variant being more contagious and more students attending school in person this year.

“There’s also a lot more resistance to masks, this year, so there’s a lot more spread in schools as a result of that,” Pollak said.

With the Omicron variant emerging out of South Africa and people traveling through the end of the year for holidays, Pollak said “it seems like a terrible time to rock the ship” by making mask optional in schools because younger students have just become eligible for vaccination.

Pollak said he had seen the fundraising page for the lawsuit against the Lake Central School Corporation. While he hadn’t read it, Pollak said it’s likely similar to lawsuits filed in other sates, like Ohio and Texas, which haven’t been successful.

“I don’t think that they’re likely to succeed. You’re free to make your own health decisions about your own kids, but when they’re in a public setting, a public school, your freedom ends where you can affect other people,” Pollak said.

In August, the Lake Central School Board passed an amended back-to-school plan, stating that masks were required for all students and staff in grades pre-K through 12th grade regardless of vaccination status, according to the lawsuit. The mask requirement would continue when Lake County’s advisory level is a yellow, orange or red on the Indiana State Department of Health COVID-19 dashboard, according to the lawsuit.

Students that don’t wear a mask face “strong consequences,” according to the lawsuit, by being removed from school and there are no online alternatives.

Before the mask mandate went into effect, Veracco conducted a survey to determine the parents’ of students in kindergarten through 6th grade preference as to whether the masks should be mandatory or optional, according to the lawsuit, and the results showed that 71% of parents where in favor of masks being optional.

The survey, Veracco said, was focused on students 12 years old and younger, and only half of the parents responded.

Mandatory masking in schools violates students “fundamental liberty interest to move about freely, to the uninterrupted use of their bodies, and, fundamentally, to breathe freely,” according to the lawsuit.

A mom of a Lake Central High School student, who asked her name not be used because of harassment concerns, said she doesn’t believe the majority of LCSC parents are against the mask mandate and is saddened that students’ health has become a political issue.

“I can say that I know from talking to my child that it’s not his perspective of what’s happening at school,” she said. “Students are wearing their masks because it means they’re able to stay in school, and the teachers are on top of it, so this minority of very vocal parents doesn’t reflect what’s actually going on.

“For people whose health is compromised, it’s not a political game. It’s coming from a place of wanting to protect people who aren’t protected from the vaccine.”