Several families sue Johnson County school districts over ‘the trauma’ of COVID masks

The families of 16 children in Johnson County are suing the Blue Valley and Olathe districts, arguing that their students should be allowed to attend school during the pandemic without wearing masks.

Attorney Linus Baker said the parents he is representing challenged their districts’ mask requirements under Senate Bill 40, which empowers parents to quickly fight such COVID-19 restrictions. But the Olathe and Blue Valley school boards have so far upheld their mask mandates.

The lawsuit, which began in Johnson County district court, was moved to federal court this week.

“The parents are terribly, terribly upset. There’s a groundswell of dissatisfaction,” Baker said in an interview Thursday. The Stilwell lawyer has previously sued the Blue Valley district and Kansas Department of Children and Families over school immunization requirements on behalf of his son, who was never vaccinated.

During the interview, Baker said he is currently ill with COVID-19.

His petition of more than 1,200 pages, filed earlier this week, argues that the students should be granted individual exemptions to the districts’ mask mandates. The parents contend that masks are interfering with their children’s ability to learn.

Districts offer medical exemptions to mask requirements, generally for students with special needs or disabilities. Districts also relax mask rules for students during some sports and other activities.

One of the parents, Joshua Snider in the Olathe district, has already been granted a medical exemption for his elementary-age student, according to the lawsuit. Court documents state he obtained a note from a doctor saying the mask caused his child anxiety.

Another parent, Julie Myrick, also was granted a medical exemption for her children, according to attorneys representing Blue Valley in court documents.

Baker argued that the parents incurred medical expenses to obtain the exemptions and are seeking reimbursement. He said other parents in the lawsuit are attempting to get doctors’ notes to request medical exemptions but are “having great difficulty.”

“Wouldn’t it be easier to just give these few students their own mask exemption for the reasons stated in (the districts’) own written policies for heaven’s sake? It’s not like they are asking for cake parties for every student in every school on Friday afternoon,” Baker said in court documents.

Two of the plaintiffs, Rebecca Campbell and Terri Baker — who is Linus Baker’s wife — claim the mask requirement burdens their practice of religion. Campbell has five children in the Blue Valley district, according to the lawsuit.

“Rebecca believes she has a God-given duty to provide an education, or see that one is provided, to each of her children according to her parental values,” the lawsuit states. “Requiring her children to wear masks when masks interfere with their learning ability is contrary to Rebecca’s religious exercise as a parent.”

Baker said the parents want the exemptions granted both for this school year, which ends in a few weeks, and through next school year.

“Every day, it’s the trauma,” Baker said. “These parents languish. It’s a lost year, they say.”

Both the Blue Valley and Olathe districts have fielded several challenges to their mask requirements since the Republican-controlled Legislature passed and Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly signed Senate Bill 40 in March. It established a new system for contesting district, city and county COVID-19 restrictions.

Under the new law, school boards are required to hold a hearing within 72 hours of a request from a student, teacher or parent who is “aggrieved” by a board decision. After the hearing, boards have a week to make a decision, which can then be challenged in court.

Districts must prove they are applying the orders in the interest of public health and are protecting those interests in the least restrictive way possible.

On Wednesday, attorneys for the Blue Valley district filed a motion to dismiss the petition. Attorney Joseph Hatley argued that Senate Bill 40 is intended to “work at a macro level, assessing the legality of a broad policy or order against a broad legal standard.”

He wrote that assessing the legality of a mask requirement at the individual level is instead a matter of whether a district is accommodating a student’s disability. He argued that would be a claim likely brought under the Americans with Disabilities Act, not Senate Bill 40.

Johnson County District Court Judge Robert Wonnell previously agreed with Hatley when he made a similar point in a different lawsuit. Last month, Johnson County Commissioner Charlotte O’Hara sued Blue Valley under Senate Bill 40 after she was refused entry into a district meeting because she was not wearing a mask.

The judge in that case agreed with Hatley that O’Hara’s complaint was an issue of accommodation for her disability, something that cannot be resolved under Senate Bill 40. The judge dismissed that lawsuit for several reasons.

In this new lawsuit, Hatley also argued that the law cannot be “retroactively” applied, because the school board approved its mask mandate last August.

District officials have argued that the schools’ mask mandates cannot be repealed under the law because they were enacted last summer. The law requires individuals to contest board actions and policies within 30 days from the time they were taken or adopted.

In the previous ruling in district court in O’Hara’s lawsuit, the judge agreed with Hatley on that point as well.

Baker’s lawsuit, which has now been moved to federal court, makes several other claims. The parents argue that the school districts did not provide them with adequate hearings under open meetings law to state their cases against the mask mandates. One parent also makes claims about their student being required to quarantine after a COVID-19 exposure.

Baker said that the case was moved to federal court because in the lawsuit, he alleges the districts violated the equal protection clause under the U.S. Constitution.

Along with the school districts, the defendants include the school boards, the Johnson County Board of Commissioners, the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment, plus county health director Sanmi Areola.

The parents named in the lawsuit are: Terri Baker, Joshua Snider, CarrieAnn Baumgarten, Rebecca Campbell, Julie Myrick, Holly Rook, Matthew Couch and Laura Klingensmith.