California slams in a legal brief the “inaccurate and outdated beliefs” of parents who filed with the state to force schools to open amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The state is shooting back at more than a dozen parents filed a case last month applying for a temporary restraining order on Govt. Gavin Newsom
Gavin NewsomBass on filling out Harris’ First Chamber: ‘I will keep all my options open’. Newsom says he has already received a number of pitches for Harris’ open Senate seat. Here’s who can fill Kamala Harris’s senate if she becomes VP MORE(D) ordered for schools in counties to be listed on the state’s virtual learning list.
In an opposition letter to California officials opposed the parents, saying they were relying on false beliefs early in the pandemic that COVID-19 had a “minimal effect on children of any age.”
“Considering that the order and guidance are not based on scientific data, Plaintiff insists on its inaccurate and outdated beliefs that children do not distribute COVID-19 during school hours, and that schools open for personal instruction in counties with high COVID-19 rates form a negative negative health risk, ”reads the brief.
“Yet COVID-19 knows no age limits,” it continues. “People of all ages, including children, are susceptible to the disease.”
California officials said the scientific consensus is that children are “susceptible to the disease” and “may experience unique severe complications.”
“Moreover, because children can spread the virus across the same community as adults, they need to be considered in the joint effort to control the spread of COVID-19,” the brief said, noting that the state has about 6.5 has millions of children of school age.
The parents apparently responded by saying, “the public has no interest in keeping schools closed this fall because personal learning does not widen the risk of COVID-19,” local TV station CBS News 8 reported.
Plaintiff said “numerous scientific studies from around the world have shown that children are not major vectors of the disease.”
“Defendants have not submitted any expert testimony disputing this evidence,” she wrote.
The parents’ lawsuit alleges that the closure of state schools within certain counties violates the constitutional rights of their children to an education.
They say California officials do not deny that virtual learning in the spring “was an unmitigated disaster that disqualified millions of California students from adequate education,” and the governor’s order will fall ‘hard’ on students without access to essential technology and students with learning disabilities.
Newsom’s commission was announced last month, saying schools in a province could be reopened if the province is on the state’s watch list for 14 days. The state COVID-19 watch list has 38 counties.
California has reported more than 599,000 cases since the start of the pandemic, with more than 10 percent of those reported last week, The New York Times reported.
The lawsuit comes as a nationwide debate ensues over whether to send children back to school during the pandemic or to conduct virtual learning, which is likely not so educationally valuable.
—Updated at 6:31 p.m.
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