Shelby County has announced a lawsuit against Tennessee Governor Bill Lee (R) over his executive order allowing parents to opt their children out of mask mandates. The county says that the order puts children at risk of contracting COVID and even dying.
The lawsuit claims the Shelby County Health Department supersedes the authority of the governor’s executive order based on the provision of state law codified in The Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 68-2-609-4, which states, “The county health officer is empowered to order: Rules and regulations as are necessary or appropriate to protect the general health and safety of the county.”
The complaint, filed Tuesday, says that “Governor Lee’s executive order makes the maintenance and support of a system of free public schools impossible.” The lawsuit opens by stating that Shelby County is in the middle of a “global pandemic, the likes of which the world has not seen in over a century.”
The county outlined the impact COVID has had on Tennessee, saying that currently, children make up 32% of active cases in Shelby County. According to Tennessee’s COVID dashboard, around 200,000 cases of COVID have been in individuals under the age of 20. The state did not share death data specifics.
The lawsuit went on to call masks “safe, effective, and necessary” and a “scientifically-based consensus.” It cited the Center for Disease Control’s latest guidance saying that “universal masking” is necessary in schools “regardless of vaccination status.”
The lawsuit also says masks are not primarily to protect the wearer, they are supposed to protect others from contracting COVID. They also drew upon Gov. Lee’s own words, saying that masks are an effective way of preventing students from contracting COVID.
Lee said that while he does agree with the efficacy of masking, he believes that it is a decision that should be made by the parents and not mandated by government or school officials. Lee reportedly said, “I fundamentally believe parents should individually make that decision for their children. It’s a way forward that will provide for parental choice but encourage the safety of our children moving forward.”
The lawsuit claimed that Lee’s Executive Order 84 was violating the Fourteenth Amendment and that it violated “the decencies of civilized conduct.” The suit reads that “The prohibitions of Executive Order 84 force children who are unable to protect themselves, with the vaccines available to adults, to subject themselves to potentially COVID-19-positive students, to suffer fear, uncertainty, illness, and possibly even death, despite medical evidence available to the State that masks are safe and effective.”
As reported by The Tennessee Star, “Lee’s executive order says that a student’s parent or guardian has the right to opt out of any order or requirement for a student in kindergarten through the 12th-grade to wear a face covering at school, on a school bus, or at school functions. To do so they must notify staff members at their local education agency or their student’s school — and in writing.”
In a radio interview, Lee touched on the possibility of districts defying his order. He said, “I think one of the things that’s been important to me is that parents have really put voice to this all across the country, and it’s a part of what has occurred even in Tennessee. Parents have made their voices known, and they ought to make it known in the two counties and the two the school districts that we have that are making noise about not complying with the law. I would encourage parents to make their voice known and to let them know that the law as it stands is for them to opt out if that’s what they want to do.”
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Hayley Tschetter is a reporter with The Minnesota Sun | Star News Network. Follow Hayley on Twitter or like her Facebook page. Send news tips to [email protected].
Photo “Bill Lee” by Bill Lee.
