By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph public schools could become entangled in a lawsuit filed by the Missouri Attorney General which attempts to prevent the Columbia School District from imposing a mask mandate.
Attorney General Eric Schmitt has filed suit against Columbia schools, seeking a court ruling to prevent the district from requiring masks in the classroom.
St. Joseph School Superintendent Doug Van Zyl understands the Attorney General is taking aim at all districts, including St. Joseph, that require masks.
“Just my personal opinion, it’s a little disappointing,” Van Zyl tells St. Joseph Post. “I believe that Missouri is a local control state and I think communities and towns and cities and school districts have had that ability over the years and to make an adjustment in that now I think could create some challenges down the road.”
Van Zyl says the St. Joseph School Board voted 5-to-1 to require students, staff, and visitors wear masks when in school buildings to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. He says the board acted after reviewing recent coronavirus case trends and consulting with Mosaic Life Care health officials.
The board is scheduled to review the policy September 13th to determine if the mandate should be extended.
Van Zyl defends the school board decision from a practical standpoint as well, pointing out the requirement kept a case of COVID-19 from spreading beyond the one student who tested positive.
“Had they not had masks on you’d be talking about 30, 40, 50 other students having to quarantine, but since masks were in place, only the positive student had to quarantine,” according to Van Zyl. “So, to me that has a big impact on a lot of students and their ability to learn and be involved in our schools and the learning process.”
Van Zyl says he won’t say the move by Schmitt, who is running for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, is politically motivated.
“But I think in general it seems like a lot of things from vaccinations to masking to quarantining all seem to be a political football that gets tossed back and forth, rather than just good open honest discussion and taking a look at the information and the facts that are out there.”
The lawsuit filed against Columbia is a class action suit that would apply to any Missouri school district requiring masks.
It has even drawn the attention of the White House. President Joe Biden's press secretary said during a briefing that Biden finds such lawsuits unacceptable and has told his education secretary to use all his authority to help school districts protect students across the country.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.