COVID updates: Biden displeased with school mask challenges, JoCo city approves mandate
Here’s the latest on COVID-19 in the Kansas City area:
Biden finds Missouri challenge to school mask mandates ‘unacceptable’
President Joe Biden finds Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s lawsuit seeking to block school mask mandates “unacceptable,” the White House said Tuesday.
“We’ve seen, including recently I think today or yesterday in Missouri, additional steps taken that in our view put more kids at risk,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during a briefing. “The president thinks that’s completely unacceptable.”
Psaki’s comments came hours after Schmitt, a Republican running for U.S. Senate, filed a class action lawsuit in Missouri’s Boone County Circuit Court in an attempt to stop school districts from enforcing mask mandates. The suit targets Columbia Public Schools but seeks to compel dozens of districts, including Kansas City, to drop rules requiring students and teachers to mask up.
Another Johnson County city mandates masks
Following the lead of another northeast Johnson County city, the Roeland Park City Council on Monday approved a mask mandate to combat climbing COVID-19 cases.
Like Prairie Village — the first in the county to implement a citywide mandate — Roeland Park will require everyone to wear face coverings inside public spaces in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19 as the highly contagious delta variant causes new cases and hospitalizations to surge. The City Council unanimously approved the order, which took effect the next day.
The mask mandate will expire on Oct. 19, unless it is extended or rescinded before then.
KS Supreme Court grants stay in emergency law case
Major revisions to the Kansas emergency management law, ruled unconstitutional last month by a Johnson County judge, will remain in place while the state Supreme Court considers an appeal.
The Kansas Supreme Court on Tuesday granted Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s request that district court judge David Hauber’s ruling be stayed until the higher court made its decision.
The stay follows more than a month of uncertainty in Kansas as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations rise and the power of local health officials and Gov. Laura Kelly was uncertain.
The Star’s Bill Lukitsch, Sarah Ritter, Jonathan Shorman, Bryan Lowry and Katie bernard contributed to this report.
This story was originally published August 25, 2021 at 7:37 AM.
