NASHVILLE, Tennessee (WTVF) – A Memphis federal judge has struck a blow against Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s executive order allowing parents to opt for their children outside of school mask requirements designed to reduce the risk of spread of COVID-19.
On Friday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Sheryl H. Lipman issued a temporary restraining order blocking Lee’s order in Shelby County, but it could pave the way for other legal challenges throughout Tennessee. .
The order comes from a lawsuit filed on behalf of two Shelby County students who have medical conditions that make them more vulnerable to coronavirus. His lawyers argued that because Lee’s order allows students to enter schools without masking and potentially infecting other children, the plaintiffs were denied their rights to a public education.
“Defendant Governor Lee does not have the option of enforcing Executive Order No. 84 in Shelby County or allowing parents to opt for Defendant Shelby County Mask Mandate,” Judge Lipman wrote.
“The Shelby County Defendant has the ORDER to enforce his sanitary orders without exception for Governor Lee’s Executive Order No. 84.”
In her view, the federal judge said Lee’s order likely violates the rights of students under the American Disability Act.
“Plaintiffs have identified ways in which they have been excluded from participating in school programs and activities, including physical education classes and socializing with their peers when they were inside school buildings and during lunch,” Lipman wrote. .
Lee’s order makes student schools not “easily accessible,” as required by law.
One of them is even “quarantined at home after contracting the virus of a child without a mask who had contracted COVID-19.”
The judge scheduled another hearing on the case for Sept. 9.
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