Kansas City’s Northland parents sue cities, schools over COVID mask, quarantine rules
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COVID-19 safety in schools
For the new school year, as COVID-19 cases are surging and hospitals are turning away patients, Kansas City area districts are making decisions about safety.
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A new nonprofit group, representing parents in the Northland, is suing seven school districts, along with elected officials in Kansas City and North Kansas City, over their mask mandates and quarantine policies.
The Northland Parent Association — which claims to be made up of hundreds of families and other taxpayers in Clay and Platte counties — filed the federal lawsuit on Sunday, requesting that the mandates, as applied to children, be struck down. The group also seeks an injunction preventing the municipalities and districts from enforcing their mask mandates and quarantine rules on schoolchildren.
The group is suing Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, North Kansas City Mayor Bryant DeLong and the city councils of both municipalities. The school districts included are: Excelsior Springs, Kearney, Liberty, North Kansas City, Smithville, Park Hill and Platte County.
“We have communicated our concerns with and opposition to the mask mandates over and over again at school board meetings and in other conversations, but the schools have not listened. This lawsuit empowers Northland families to have a voice,” Julie Bell, a member of the group and parent of students in Kearney schools, said in an email to The Star on Monday.
The lawsuit comes as Attorney General Eric Schmitt seeks to block Missouri school districts from mandating masks. Schmitt filed a lawsuit last week against Columbia Public Schools. But the class action suit, in Boone County Circuit Court, goes beyond the local district, and asks the court to strike down district mask directives statewide. Schmitt previously sued Kansas City, Jackson County and other localities to block their mask rules.
In a statement, Lucas said he is “saddened to see yet another lawsuit filed today over masking without merit under Missouri law — just like the suits filed against us before, including the Missouri Attorney General’s own politically-motivated stunt.
“The City has crafted each set of COVID-19 guidelines based on clear, data-driven advice from health and scientific leaders from the White House and CDC down to our Health Department. Our City Council — including three of the four members from Kansas City’s Northland — have codified this indoor mask mandate in places of public accommodation for this reason: masking works to slow the spread of COVID-19.”
Public health experts have urged school districts to require masks, especially as children under 12 are not yet eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Among health authorities, masks are widely seen as a reasonable, modest step to help cut transmission of the virus while keeping public spaces open. Combined with social distancing, testing, cleaning and other mitigation steps, health officials agree that masks help prevent transmission of the virus.
In a statement to The Star, Liberty schools spokesman Dallas Ackerman said the district’s priority is providing “five days per week of in-person learning opportunities for all students.”
“Following the first week of school, it is evident that COVID-19 remains in our community as we have seen positive cases within our schools. We appreciate the efforts of our entire team to make these learning opportunities possible for our students,” he said, adding that “We would already have a significantly higher number of students and staff quarantined if mask requirements were not currently in place as we follow COVID-19 policies and procedures set forth by federal and local health officials.”
But the Northland parents group alleges in its lawsuit that “the mask mandates are unconstitutional, unlawful, unreasonable, arbitrary, and capricious, and involve an abuse of discretion.” The complaint questions the efficacy of masks, as well as the risk of the virus to children.
As the highly contagious delta variant spreads through the region, more children are falling ill, hospitals and public health experts report. And while pediatric COVID-19 hospitalization rates are lower than those for adults, they have surged in recent weeks.
Jay Richmond, president of the board of the Northland Parent Association and a parent of students in the North Kansas City district, said like-minded families began to join together over the past six months. But the group formally organized earlier in August.
Group members said that “concerned parents and families in the Northland” are funding their efforts. A GoFundMe page started by the group has so far raised more than $3,300. Nearly 700 people follow the group’s Facebook page.
The group claims that school mask mandates are “unnecessary, burdensome, and harmful.” They also find issue with districts’ medical exemption rules, requiring a medical doctor or health care professional to approve of any exemptions to their mask mandates.
The complaint states that the districts “are requiring parents and legal guardians to provide physician statements with the student’s clearly identified and diagnosed medical conditions or disabilities and reasons that the student cannot safely wear a mask. … The right to privacy protects the students’ personal autonomy and bodily integrity from intrusion by the government, and it protects the disclosure of personal and private information, such as a person’s medical history.”
The lawsuit also alleges that district quarantine policies are unlawful and create “two separate but unequal classes of students” — those who are vaccinated and those who are not. In many cases, vaccinated and masked students who are exposed to the virus are allowed to remain in school as long as they are asymptomatic and do not test positive, per health officials’ guidance.
Lucas contended that Kansas City’s “mask mandate helps protect students, teachers, faculty, and staff — and all of their loved ones at home — and I and the city will continue to stand by our actions, which were made to protect our children and our vulnerable friends, families and neighbors.”
Susan Hiland, a spokeswoman for the North Kansas City schools, said that “due in large part to the district’s safety efforts, our students, staff and families enjoyed an excellent first week of school.”
She said district officials would not comment on pending litigation, “but will affirm our commitment to do what is recommended to keep our students, staff and community safe.”
“Along with many other school districts across Missouri and the United States, decisions are being made based on what is needed in the community at that given time. North Kansas City Schools’ decisions are made in direct response to guidance and recommendations from local, state and national health experts. We will continue this practice with the goal of keeping students in-person to the greatest degree possible.”
Other district officials either did not immediately return The Star’s requests for comment on Monday or declined to comment on pending litigation.
Some school districts have already seen the consequences of bringing back hundreds of unvaccinated and unmasked students.
The Wellington school district in south-central Kansas, which made masks optional, suspended all school-related activities until Sept. 7 because of COVID-19 outbreaks, less than two weeks into the school year. And in the Kansas City area, both the Turner and Raymore-Peculiar districts implemented mask mandates after growing numbers of students and staff were exposed to the virus and quarantined.
