Missouri Attorney General files lawsuit against six school districts for reimposing mask mandates

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

Missouri Attorney General's office has filed six lawsuits against school districts in the St. Louis metro area for reimposing their mask mandates on school-age children.

The districts involved in the lawsuit include Special School District of St. Louis, Maplewood Richmond Heights, Clayton, Ladue, Webster Groves, and Mehlville.

“It is truly unbelievable that schools, without any authority whatsoever, are making the decision to reimpose mask mandates on school-age children, a decision that flies in the face of science, data, and common sense. Masks simply do not work to stop the spread of COVID-19, and children are at an exceedingly low risk of getting seriously ill from COVID-19,” said Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt in a release.

The lawsuits argue that the school districts, through arbitrarily set “triggers,” reimplemented their mask mandates.

The lawsuit states that “School districts do not have the authority to impose, at their whim, public health orders for their schoolchildren. That is doubly true when the public health order, in this case, facemasks, creates a barrier to education that far outweighs any speculative benefit.”

The Missouri Attorney General’s Office still has a lawsuit against Columbia Public Schools and two other districts over mask mandates.