School boards sue as governor orders mask at schools optional

State administration says it will continue to protect parents’ rights.

Seven school boards — including one overseeing the largest and most prominent district in the state — are suing to stop a mask-optional order by Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, R, on the day it is supposed to take effect, arguing that the order violates the Virginia Constitution.

The school boards, led by Fairfax County Public Schools, whose 180,000 students make it Virginia’s biggest system, filed suit Monday morning in Arlington Circuit Court. The suit asks for an immediate injunction barring enforcement of Youngkin’s order, which sought to leave masking decisions to parents, contravening federal health guidance and the masking mandates that the vast majority of Virginia school districts have maintained throughout the pandemic.

In the school boards’ complaint, their lawyers write that Youngkin’s executive order goes against Article 8, Section 7, of Virginia’s constitution, which asserts that “the supervision of schools in each school division shall be vested in a school board.” The lawyers also say Youngkin’s order contradicts a state law passed over the summer that requires Virginia school districts to follow federal health guidelines to the “maximum extent practicable.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends masking inside K-12 schools for everyone over age 2, regardless of vaccination status.

Youngkin spokeswoman Macaulay Porter said in a statement Monday morning, responding to the suit, that “we will continue to protect parents’ fundamental right to make decisions with regard to their child’s upbringing, education and care.”

Meanwhile, parents showed up Monday morning at schools throughout Loudoun County determined to send their children to class without masks. At at least one high school, the parent gathering morphed into an improptu rally, with roughly two dozen adults gathering maskless outside Woodgrove High School in Purcellville to cheer, denounce masks and listen to a playing of the national anthem.