Kutztown puts hold on gathering rule
Federal judge ruled against Pennsylvania’s statewide restrictions
When a federal judge on Monday struck down key parts of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s coronavirus battle plan as unconstitutional, the decision had an immediate impact on Kutztown.
Just three days earlier, on Friday, borough council passed an emergency ordinance that, in part, restricted residential gatherings to no more than 10 unrelated people, and public gatherings to no more than 100.
The limits were partly in response to a spike in infections at Kutztown University — one of many campuses across the country registering case increases since students returned to class. But gathering limits were among the state restrictions U.S. District Judge William S. Stickman IV said ran afoul of constitutional guarantees of due process, free assembly and equal protection.
Council on Tuesday put enforcement of that portion of the ordinance on hold, while leaving sections pertaining to masking and social distancing in effect.
“We’re going to wait for this section [of the ordinance] to see the outcome of the state’s next position,” borough Manager Gabriel Khalife said. “Are they
going to appeal or request a stay? So we’re just going to keep this section on delay.”
Wolf had not taken any action as of Wednesday, though a spokesperson said the state plans to appeal the ruling and request a stay of the decision.
The pandemic reached Pennsylvania in early March, prompting Wolf and Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine to order nonessential businesses to close, impose stay-at-home orders and limit public gatherings in a bid to disrupt transmission of the deadly airborne virus that has killed more than 7,800 residents and sickened more than 145,000 in Pennsylvania. Wolf, a Democrat, has since lifted many of the restrictions, allowing businesses to reopen and canceling a statewide stay-at-home order. But legal experts say Stickman’s order, unless it is stayed, would prevent the state from imposing such restrictions again in the case of a severe outbreak.
Khalife said council, in adopting its own measures, “wanted to try to be preventive or proactive, to do something ahead of a bigger problem.”
While some residents accused council of overreach, “I think almost all the people understand why council is looking to do it,” he said.
Borough police Chief Craig M. Summers said the department had not written any citations in the brief time the gathering restriction was in effect. But officers wouldn’t have begun citing violators immediately anyway.
“We would be educating instead of [citing],” he said. “But we’re only going to educate them so many times.”
So far, the chief said, “there haven’t been large parties” normally associated with the return to campus. But, he added, “It’s not a normal type of school year.”
Some schools, facing COVID-19 spikes, have sent students home and switched to online learning. Temple University did so after recording 333 cases Aug. 10-28.
Kutztown University is sticking with its hybrid of in-person and online classes despite having recorded 242 cases as of Tuesday. About 2,300 students live on campus.
University spokesman Matt Santos said the school doesn’t plan to make large, off-campus gatherings a violation of the student code, as some schools have done. He said parties are discouraged and students “have done a good job of self-policing.”
When asked, a spokesperson for Wolf did not address the Kutztown vote Wednesday.