WASHINGTON — The debate over whether returning students should wear masks in the classroom has moved from school boards to courtrooms.
In at least 14 states, lawsuits have been filed either for or against masks in schools. In some cases, normally rule-enforcing school administrators find themselves fighting state leaders.
Legal experts say that while state laws normally trump local control, legal arguments from mask proponents have a good chance of coming out on top. But amid protests and even violence over masks around the United States, the court battle is just beginning.
Mask rules in public schools vary widely. Some states require masks; others ban mandates. Many more leave it up to individual districts.
Big school districts that want to require masks are in court and battling governors in Florida, Texas and Arizona. Parents are suing over similar legislative bans on mandates in Utah, Iowa and South Carolina.
Suits fighting mask requirements have popped up in Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Kentucky and Montana.
The early court record is mixed, with victories for mask proponents in Arkansas and Arizona followed by back-to-back decisions in two big states going opposite ways. The Texas Supreme Court blocked another school mask mandate Thursday, while a Florida judge allowed the rules to go forward Friday.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending universal mask wearing in schools. Students age 12 and younger remain ineligible for COVID-19 vaccines.
Republican officials who restrict mask mandates argue that there are downsides to kids being masked all day and that parents should decide whether to put them on children, who are generally less vulnerable to the virus than are older adults.
But public health experts say masks are a key coronavirus-prevention tool that does not pose health risks for children older than toddler age, and that is truly effective when worn by a large number of people.
“This idea of parental freedom to decide what’s best for their child is not unlimited. It has never been unlimited in our system,” said Ellen Clayton, a pediatrician and law professor at Vanderbilt Law School in Nashville, Tennessee.
Nationwide, COVID-19 deaths are running at more than 1,200 a day, the highest level since mid-March. New cases per day are averaging over 156,000, turning the clock back to the end of January.
The surge is largely fueled by the highly contagious delta variant among people who are unvaccinated. In areas where vaccination rates are low, doctors have pleaded with their communities to get inoculated to spare overburdened hospitals.
