Missouri lawyers question attorney general’s interpretation of health orders law
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Missouri lawyers are questioning the attorney general's interpretation of a Cole County ruling being used to justify his investigation into Columbia Public Schools.
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt opened an investigation on Columbia Public Schools' mask policy after sending out a warning letter to school districts and health departments across the state telling them to stop enforcing health mandates. Schmitt's letter explained his interpretation of a ruling by Cole County Judge Daniel Green in Robinson v. Department of Health and Senior Services. However, Missouri lawyer Elad Gross told ABC 17 News he interprets the ruling differently.
Gross is a civil rights attorney out of St. Louis, and he also ran against Schmitt in the 2020 attorney general election. The Cole County ruling prohibits non-elected officials from enacting and enforcing health orders related to COVID-19. Gross interprets this to mean elected school board officials do not fall under the ruling.
Gross also cites Missouri Statute 167.191, which gives schools the power to enforce rules that would protect students from infectious diseases.
"The opinion is not directed towards those jurisdictions where a school board, for example, has voted and said, 'No, here's what our policies are going to be,'" Gross said. "And there's a long history in Missouri and much of this country and having schools protecting kids from the spread of diseases like this one."
Gross is not the only lawyer to have this interpretation. Lindsey Simmons, an attorney and former candidate for Congress, broke down her thoughts on the ruling on Twitter.
"No where in this opinion does it make mask mandates universally illegal in the state of Missouri," Simmons writes. "No where. But Eric Schmitt—the elected Attorney General of Missouri—would have you believe otherwise."
Rep. Chuck Basye (R-Columbia) has three grandchildren that attend Columbia Public Schools. Basye wrote to Superintendent Brian Yearwood about the mask mandate after reading the letters Schmitt sent to school districts.
"Congratulations on setting an inappropriate example to CPS students on ignoring the law, the legal process and respect for authority by your illegal mask mandate," Basye wrote in his letter.
Basye told ABC 17 he intends to push legislation to give parents power of school boards in the upcoming Missouri congressional session.
"This stuff needs to stop, and I'm gonna do everything I can as a state representative and the chair of the Education Committee to put a stop to this nonsense," Basye said. "So they need to really rethink about what they're doing to our kids, not only with these masks but the stuff they're putting in front of them in the classrooms."
