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Saying a mask does not pose a potential of harm to others, U.S. Middle District Court Judge Matthew W. Brann on Thursday denied an injunction regarding a requirement in the Montoursville Area School District that students wear masks.
In Brann's opinion, "No one except perhaps a bank robber likes to wear a mask -- and even then with reluctance, but as a concession to professional attire. But the Constitution does not shield us from all things we dislike. Here, parents of schoolchildren in Montoursville."
"The Constitution does not guarantee students a right to attend school without wearing a mask and being required to do so neither inflicts irreparable harm nor in any way violates students' right to freely associate and assemble with others," Brann said.
Mark and Brenda Oberheim, the parents of the children, and other parents asked for the injunction after Christina Bason, superintendent implemented an order by Alison Beam, acting state Department of Health secretary, after the state experienced a surge in COVID-19 due primarily to the highly contagious Delta variant.
The board passed a health and safety plan for the district that had a mask optional policy.
Board president David Shimmel also signed a document in June stating how the district would be flexible depending on what was ordered by the state Department of Health.
By the end of the following month, the public health landscape concerning COVID-19 had changed dramatically, according to Brann.
Between July and August 2021, the state's COVID-19 case count increased "from less than 300 cases per day to more than 3,000 cases per day."
In total, "there were 1,300,368 cases and 28,235 deaths across the state caused by COVID-19."
Particularly troubling for the state schools was the number of COVID-19 cases "among school-aged children . . . increased by 11,000 in a one-month period and by more than 79,000 since the beginning of the year," according to Brann's opinion.
The surge in new cases was attributable, at least in part, to a highly transmissible, "more infectious" strand of the virus: the Delta variant.
In response to these developments, on Aug. 31, Beam, issued the following mandate to school entities, including public pre-kindergarten through 12th grade schools: "Each teacher, child/student, staff, or visitor working, attending or visiting a school entity shall wear a face covering indoors, regardless of vaccination status, except under some circumstances.
The parents "asked the court to take the extraordinary step of suspending the Montoursville area schools' mask mandate, thus permitting students to attend school without masks in direct contravention of the state Department of Health's masking order," Brann said. "But to receive such a drastic remedy, the plaintiffs must clear several significant legal hurdles. They failed to do so," Brann said.
The mask mandate does not infringe on the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the students or their parents, the plaintiffs' claims are unlikely to succeed, Brann said.
"Moreover, the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate how the mask mandate, if permitted to stay in effect, would result in irreparable harm. The parents challenged the constitutionality of the district's policy requiring students to wear masks while on school premises and buses.
Despite the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, the parents ask the court to immediately suspend the school district's mask mandate pending the resolution of their case. Brann said the parents failed to "establish that such an extraordinary remedy is warranted in this circumstance."