Iowa school mask ban lawsuit amended as feds investigate law

By DAVID PITT
August 30, 2021

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa woman has amended her lawsuit over the state’s ban on mandatory face masks in schools to include allegations the law violates state and federal constitutional protections, a move that came as federal education officials on Monday questioned Iowa’s ban and as hospitals scramble to care for increasing numbers of people sick with the coronavirus.

Frances Parr, of Council Bluffs, last week sued the state, Gov. Kim Reynolds and several state officials last week in Polk County District Court. The lawsuit seeks an order requiring the state to issue a universal mask mandate for all students and school personnel until a voluntary plan can be implemented that segregates mask-wearing students and staff from those who opt not to wear masks.

A revised petition was filed on Friday by Parr’s attorney Daniel McGinn. It additionally asked the court to declare that the law violates equal protection and due process rights guaranteed in the federal and state constitutions. The lawsuit also claims the law is unenforceable under a doctrine recognized in Iowa since 1918 that holds that schools must be safe by “putting students at risk of COVID-19 and the delta variant for no rational reason. Neither the state nor parents have a right to unnecessarily expose a child to a communicable disease.”

Parr — whose children were set to start first grade in the Council Bluffs Community School District this fall, but will instead be taught at home over their mother’s fear for their safety — asks the court to prevent the state from enforcing the law or at least the section of the law that applies to schools.

The additional filing came on the day that the chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court signed an order making masks mandatory in areas controlled by the courts in contrast to the state law, which bans similar mandates in public schools. ...

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