Gwinnett County Public Schools’ mask mandate is the focus of a legal battle that pits an administration intent on protecting its students and staff and a group of parents who view masks as overreach. | Pixabay
Gwinnett County Public Schools’ mask mandate is the focus of a legal battle that pits an administration intent on protecting its students and staff and a group of parents who view masks as overreach. | Pixabay
Gwinnett County Public Schools’ (GCPS) mask mandate is the focus of a legal battle that pits an administration intent on protecting its students and staff and a group of parents who view masks as overreach.
WSBTV News reported that the parents filed a lawsuit in hopes of a judge reversing the order, arguing that Gov. Brian Kemp’s emergency order in July doesn’t give school districts the authority to enforce mask requirements.
Gwinnett County Schools Supt. Dr. Calvin Watts told the station that the GCPS “[wants] to make sure that each and every child [it serves] is served in a safe, warm, welcoming environment.”
“And part of that safety has to do with the adherence to CDC’s guidance, and I certainly will be a leader who follows the science,” Watts said.
Each side testified in the case late last month.
FOX 5 News reported that one mother, Holly Terei, said on the stand that she removed her 10-year-old daughter from GCPS because the girl struggled while wearing a mask.
"She started coming to us asking us asking what depression is and that she thinks she has depression," the station reported Terei as saying.
Assistant Superintendent Al Taylor testified that the decision to require masks was based on on health guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as the Gwinnett, Newton, Rockdale County Health Department, FOX 5 reported.
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