4 Kids Mask 60,000 in a Red County as Blue NYC Lifts Mandates

 

You may not know much about Tennessee, but it is a deep red state with Republican leadership.  The governor is Bill Lee, and he issued an executive order quite some time ago to stop local jurisdictions from enforcing mask mandates on school children.

Additionally, in Knox County, which is in East Tennessee, the local school board voted to not have students wear masks unless their parents wanted them to do so for the 2021-2022 school year.

So there were no mask mandates in Knox County Schools, right?

Well…  That was true for a little while, but then a group of four parents got creative with federal power.

What happened?

A lawsuit was filed under the American Disabilities Act.  This lawsuit said that four students who were/are kids with legitimate health challenges could not safely go to their public schools unless all the other students, along with all school employees, wore masks while on school grounds and while participating in school-sponsored activities.  Their lawyer said these kids with disabilities were “sitting ducks” in school unless cloth was slapped across every child’s face, whether or not they were in close proximity to these four filing the lawsuit.  It was absolutely unfair to make these kids stay at home to learn because they would feel isolated, and their education would be compromised.

So masks should be (and thus have been) considered a “reasonable accommodation” for 60,000 students to help four students, even though no one in Knox County is forced to wear a mask anywhere else in public as far as I can tell, except in hospitals.  

By the way, that has been the case now for a very, very long time.

Even the downtown people who are more left-leaning/mask-wearing than suburbanites abandoned their “mask required” store signs months ago, which I suspect was in part because they realized they were losing too much business.  (As soon as vaccines were widely accessible, I certainly refused to shop anywhere where I was required to do anything, and I noticed when “mask required” signs came back to big box stores, a large enough segment of people in this area became so selectively illiterate that the guy trying to hand out masks at places like REI was left holding them limply in one hand because too many people simply ignored him.)

Regardless, a federal judge named J. Ronnie Greer forced a new mask mandate under the ADA, and his order has been in effect now since September.

In early February, that same group of original parents asked for the court to put “neutral monitors” into all the schools to make sure that the schools were still complying with their standards, even though the preferred experts of many of these sorts of parents had started calling cloth masks “facial decorations” in light of Omicron as early as December of 2021.

Anyway, appeals kept happening and getting shot down, so the county finally got permission to hire more/new lawyers. A lawsuit was also just filed by the parents of five other children who say that masks have had negative impacts on their kids per their kids’ disabilities, i.e. speech impairment has gotten worse for a child as a result of that child being forced to accommodate other children with little scientific justification.

On this point, I just read an article in the local newspaper that says these parents have an uphill battle to prove their position, which is that actions taken in the schools have been an example of federal overreach, especially since the mental stress of wearing masks has more negative implications for most children than getting Covid-19.  This newspaper article points out that 17% of kids in the county have been Covid positive, and one child has, indeed, died of Covid in 2022.  (The implication is that these facts counter the “unmask” lawsuit’s position.)

However, kids getting Covid does not prove that Covid is a big threat to them or that masks stop them from spreading or catching Covid to others who are at higher risk.

It is also true that a child recently died from Covid-19 in Knox County.  This is absolutely horrible, and my heart completely breaks for her mother.  However, she had a major circulatory problem as an underlying issue, and she was not saved by having to wear a mask to math class, if she was even a public school student.

The original ADA parents can, I think, see the writing on the wall while named as defendants in the lawsuit against them because they have now come out to ask the judge to lift the mask mandates per CDC guidance, but I also think there is a bigger issue at stake here.

What limits are there to the ADA?  Can children be forced to wear masks for other communicable diseases to protect a small minority?  How could this legislation be used to undermine state powers in the future?

These are very important questions, which makes this lawsuit about a heckuva lot more than masks.

For example, the lawsuit to “unmask Knox County kids” has equated the actions of Judge Greer to making all children learn sign language to accommodate one hearing impaired student, which would be unreasonable.  But why not?  That would surely make that hearing-impaired kid’s life better!  That would surely enhance that hearing-impaired kid’s education!  What is the limiting principle for the ADA?  While I have a great deal of compassion for kids with extra challenges, I can understand why the current context has created resentment and confusion.  I am also left wondering what is a “reasonable accommodation” now????

Anyway, as of this morning, kids in Knox County, TN, one of the reddest places in the country where parents spoke loud and clear through their political representatives that they supported free choice months ago, are wearing masks to school, while kids in NYC, one of the bluest places in the country where parents were much more likely to advocate for mask mandates through their political representatives, are breathing free.

That’s irony.

Published in General
This post was promoted to the Main Feed by a Ricochet Editor at the recommendation of Ricochet members. Like this post? Want to comment? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

There are 55 comments.

Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.
  1. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    This is where the State should tell the Feds “Make us” and see what happens. 

    I mean, if a state can refuse to aid ICE and can Legalize Pot, why can’t it just also ignore the ADA?

    The GOP gov needs to grow a pair. 

    • #1
  2. Chuck Coolidge
    Chuck
    @Chuckles

    The consequences of State involvement in education.

    • #2
  3. Lois Lane Coolidge
    Lois Lane
    @LoisLane

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    This is where the State should tell the Feds “Make us” and see what happens.

    I mean, if a state can refuse to aid ICE and can Legalize Pot, why can’t it just also ignore the ADA?

    The GOP gov needs to grow a pair.

    The Knox County mayor has helped fund the “unmask Knox County kids” lawsuit.  

    • #3
  4. Lois Lane Coolidge
    Lois Lane
    @LoisLane

    Chuck (View Comment):

    The consequences of State involvement in education.

    Well, this is a strange thing though.  The ADA doesn’t apply to just education.  I’m no lawyer, and I don’t pretend to be one on Ricochet.  However, it seems to me that there are much, much bigger issues here than even state run education.  I think of an accommodation being a wheelchair accessible building.  But why couldn’t this be applied in larger ways–to private commerce–if it’s left to stand?  

    It just seems to me that the ADA is being misused as a cudgel, abused per its intent.  

    • #4
  5. Blondie Thatcher
    Blondie
    @Blondie

    Lois Lane (View Comment):

    It just seems to me that the ADA is being misused as a cudgel, abused per its intent.  

    It has always been so. The most ridiculous thing that I know it has brought into being is the “spatula” for swimming pools. I know the original intent when HW signed the thing was seen as noble, but as with most things, the progressives take it one step further. It seems they can pigeonhole anything to be covered under it. 

    • #5
  6. Chuck Coolidge
    Chuck
    @Chuckles

    Lois Lane (View Comment):

    Chuck (View Comment):

    The consequences of State involvement in education.

    Well, this is a strange thing though. The ADA doesn’t apply to just education. I’m no lawyer, and I don’t pretend to be one on Ricochet. However, it seems to me that there are much, much bigger issues here than even state run education. I think of an accommodation being a wheelchair accessible building. But why couldn’t this be applied in larger ways–to private commerce–if it’s left to stand?

    It just seems to me that the ADA is being misused as a cudgel, abused per its intent.

    Yes, agreed, ADA is being used as a cudgel:  But everybody has heard the old saying “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

    Good intentions gave us the Federal Reserve, IRS, Medicare, Medicaid, HHS, CDC, on and on and on ad nauseum.

    • #6
  7. Victor Tango Kilo Member
    Victor Tango Kilo
    @VtheK

    The ADA is another wonderful legacy of the Bush Presidency.

    • #7
  8. Barfly Member
    Barfly
    @Barfly

    Chuck (View Comment):

    Lois Lane (View Comment):

    Chuck (View Comment):

    The consequences of State involvement in education.

    Well, this is a strange thing though. The ADA doesn’t apply to just education. I’m no lawyer, and I don’t pretend to be one on Ricochet. However, it seems to me that there are much, much bigger issues here than even state run education. I think of an accommodation being a wheelchair accessible building. But why couldn’t this be applied in larger ways–to private commerce–if it’s left to stand?

    It just seems to me that the ADA is being misused as a cudgel, abused per its intent.

    Yes, agreed, ADA is being used as a cudgel: But everybody has heard the old saying “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

    Good intentions gave us the Federal Reserve, IRS, Medicare, Medicaid, HHS, CDC, on and on and on ad nauseum.

    We’re going to have to realize: those were not “good intentions.” 

    • #8
  9. Lois Lane Coolidge
    Lois Lane
    @LoisLane

    Blondie (View Comment):

    Lois Lane (View Comment):

    It just seems to me that the ADA is being misused as a cudgel, abused per its intent.

    It has always been so. The most ridiculous thing that I know it has brought into being is the “spatula” for swimming pools. I know the original intent when HW signed the thing was seen as noble, but as with most things, the progressives take it one step further. It seems they can pigeonhole anything to be covered under it.

    What in the world is a spatula in a swimming pool?

    • #9
  10. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    Lois Lane (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    This is where the State should tell the Feds “Make us” and see what happens.

    I mean, if a state can refuse to aid ICE and can Legalize Pot, why can’t it just also ignore the ADA?

    The GOP gov needs to grow a pair.

    The Knox County mayor has helped fund the “unmask Knox County kids” lawsuit.

    Not the same as just ignoring the order. 

    Again, if San Fran can ignore Ice then the school system can ignore the ADA. 

    We have to start just ignoring Federal BS. That is how the feds lose their power.

    • #10
  11. ctlaw Coolidge
    ctlaw
    @ctlaw

    Lois Lane: A lawsuit was also just filed by the parents of five other children who say that masks have had negative impacts on their kids per their kids’ disabilities, i.e. speech impairment has gotten worse for a child as a result of that child being forced to accommodate other children with little scientific justification.

    Presumably this:

    https://www.dhillonlaw.com/lawsuits/unmask-knox-county-kids-v-knoxville-county-board-of-education/

    • #11
  12. 9thDistrictNeighbor Member
    9thDistrictNeighbor
    @9thDistrictNeighbor

    Every other parent should demand that their child have an IEP that dictates that the least restrictive environment for their child is a classroom without a mask.  Plenty of parents get IEPs so their kids have extra time on tests, so its not frivolous to state that a mask interferes with their child receiving an education in the least restrictive environment.  

    • #12
  13. Lois Lane Coolidge
    Lois Lane
    @LoisLane

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    Lois Lane (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    This is where the State should tell the Feds “Make us” and see what happens.

    I mean, if a state can refuse to aid ICE and can Legalize Pot, why can’t it just also ignore the ADA?

    The GOP gov needs to grow a pair.

    The Knox County mayor has helped fund the “unmask Knox County kids” lawsuit.

    Not the same as just ignoring the order.

    Again, if San Fran can ignore Ice then the school system can ignore the ADA.

    We have to start just ignoring Federal BS. That is how the feds lose their power.

    The state government cannot force parents/students to not comply, though local officials can–apparently–force them to wear masks.

    There were protests in the beginning and even very recently, but when kids came to school without masks they were at first isolated in other rooms and then counted as truant.  There were not enough of them refusing to comply to make a difference.

    Why not?

    I think some parents agreed with the mandates; more parents felt it wasn’t worth putting their 7 year old in a precarious position when all they really wanted was that 7 year old to be able to go to school and learn how to read while they went to work.

    Politicians take their cues from people.

    I agree with you about noncompliance on some levels, but that has to happen more broadly, I think?  Like in the stores that I mentioned?  People simply stopped wearing masks in grocery stores.  First this was a small number, and then it was a flood of folks, too many to police, so to speak.

    This is a hard battle for children.

    • #13
  14. Lois Lane Coolidge
    Lois Lane
    @LoisLane

    ctlaw (View Comment):

    Lois Lane: A lawsuit was also just filed by the parents of five other children who say that masks have had negative impacts on their kids per their kids’ disabilities, i.e. speech impairment has gotten worse for a child as a result of that child being forced to accommodate other children with little scientific justification.

    Presumably this:

    https://www.dhillonlaw.com/lawsuits/unmask-knox-county-kids-v-knoxville-county-board-of-education/

    Yes.  

    Even though the school board sided with not masking children per multiple votes at multiple school board meetings, they are subject to this suit for legal reasons, which I cannot say I understand.  (Again, I’m not a lawyer.)  I think this is because they are “the power” within the school system, and you can’t sue a federal judge?  

    The governor is also in the suit even though he clearly sided with no mandates.  And the families of the original children who got the mask mandates put in place are named.  

    I’d love for a lawyer to explain that if possible.  The mayor has said suing the school board is not ideal but the only way to get a suit going.  

     

     

     

    • #14
  15. Full Size Tabby Member
    Full Size Tabby
    @FullSizeTabby

    Lois Lane (View Comment):

    Blondie (View Comment):

    Lois Lane (View Comment):

    It just seems to me that the ADA is being misused as a cudgel, abused per its intent.

    It has always been so. The most ridiculous thing that I know it has brought into being is the “spatula” for swimming pools. I know the original intent when HW signed the thing was seen as noble, but as with most things, the progressives take it one step further. It seems they can pigeonhole anything to be covered under it.

    What in the world is a spatula in a swimming pool?

    I’m going to guess its a reference to the expensive high maintenance assist chair every swimming pool open to the public has had to install, but which rarely if ever is used.

    Several professional plaintiffs and their lawyers make a lot of money suing businesses and municipalities for trivial and inconsequential technical violations of the ADA, such as the slope of a ramp being a fraction of a degree off specification. More ADA litigation is about exerting raw power than it is about actually improving the lives of people. 

    Although I think the matter was eventually corrected, for a while the ADA was used as a vehicle for lawyers and judges to write the rules of professional golf, denying golfers and golf organizations the right to write the rules of their own game. 

    Yes, the ADA is a source of much abuse.

    • #15
  16. Lois Lane Coolidge
    Lois Lane
    @LoisLane

    9thDistrictNeighbor (View Comment):

    Every other parent should demand that their child have an IEP that dictates that the least restrictive environment for their child is a classroom without a mask. Plenty of parents get IEPs so their kids have extra time on tests, so its not frivolous to state that a mask interferes with their child receiving an education in the least restrictive environment.

    It is my understanding that one of the reasons that the plaintiffs in the current lawsuit have taken their case to court is that their children were not allowed mask accommodations, even when doctors said that masks were doing them harm.  One such student had/has sensory issues, and the school’s “accommodation” was to allow five minute “mask breaks” rather than a maskless environment.  

    • #16
  17. Victor Tango Kilo Member
    Victor Tango Kilo
    @VtheK

    Lois Lane (View Comment):
    It just seems to me that the ADA is being misused as a cudgel, abused per its intent.  

    And some people warned that the broad language of the ADA would lead to this exact thing. They were told to shut up and stop hating handicapped people.

    • #17
  18. Lois Lane Coolidge
    Lois Lane
    @LoisLane

    Full Size Tabby (View Comment):

    Lois Lane (View Comment):

    Blondie (View Comment):

    Lois Lane (View Comment):

    It just seems to me that the ADA is being misused as a cudgel, abused per its intent.

    It has always been so. The most ridiculous thing that I know it has brought into being is the “spatula” for swimming pools. I know the original intent when HW signed the thing was seen as noble, but as with most things, the progressives take it one step further. It seems they can pigeonhole anything to be covered under it.

    What in the world is a spatula in a swimming pool?

    I’m going to guess its a reference to the expensive high maintenance assist chair every swimming pool open to the public has had to install, but which rarely if ever is used.

    Several professional plaintiffs and their lawyers make a lot of money suing businesses and municipalities for trivial and inconsequential technical violations of the ADA, such as the slope of a ramp being a fraction of a degree off specification. More ADA litigation is about exerting raw power than it is about actually improving the lives of people.

    Although I think the matter was eventually corrected, for a while the ADA was used as a vehicle for lawyers and judges to write the rules of professional golf, denying golfers and golf organizations the right to write the rules of their own game.

    Yes, the ADA is a source of much abuse.

    I do recall listening to a podcast that went through some of the ADA hustles that have gone down through the years so that various people can get payouts via settlements.  Many sounded so absurd that I would not have believed they were true at one point in my life.  (Now I can believe the government will do just about anything.)  

    For example, one that comes to mind focused on the lack of wheelchair access to a stripper pole at a strip joint.  I don’t know if that was a successful suit or not, but… yeah.  I think the case was made.  

    • #18
  19. Lois Lane Coolidge
    Lois Lane
    @LoisLane

    Victor Tango Kilo (View Comment):

    Lois Lane (View Comment):
    It just seems to me that the ADA is being misused as a cudgel, abused per its intent.

    And some people warned that the broad language of the ADA would lead to this exact thing. They were told to shut up and stop hating handicapped people.

    I would like cases like the one that is impacting Knox County to bring the ADA under closer scrutiny as it sounds like it needs to be rewritten with much, much, mucccccchhhhhh more narrow language.  

    • #19
  20. Raxxalan Member
    Raxxalan
    @Raxxalan

    I can’t help but think we have crossed some ominous new line when we are using children as proxies in our partisan political battles.  It may be that it was always thus sub-rosa but to have it out in the open seems like an escalation. 

    • #20
  21. Lois Lane Coolidge
    Lois Lane
    @LoisLane

    Raxxalan (View Comment):

    I can’t help but think we have crossed some ominous new line when we are using children as proxies in our partisan political battles. It may be that it was always thus sub-rosa but to have it out in the open seems like an escalation.

    I agree.  I honestly think this is why people have complied as well.  They did not want to throw their kids into a political battle when putting them on the school bus, though parents have continued to press for masks to come off in “adult” forums, i.e. engaged in politics outside of the classroom as much as possible.  

    I do not have a child in Knox County Schools, though I live here and pay close attention to what impacts my neighbors.  

    I can say if I did still have a kid in school, I would have removed my child from the system all together because I would not want him/her to be subject to any of this.  (Private schools don’t have the same mandates.  Homeschools do what they like.  One county over, kids are without masks!)  But I would have the resources to make such a move. 

    People from elsewhere might not know this, but Knox County is not exactly Silicon Valley when it comes to wealth.  There are some people with a lot of resources, of course, but there are a lot more regular folk who really must rely on the public system for their families to function. They don’t have the luxury of being able to quit jobs or simply move.  This makes revolting against that system much harder, if that makes sense.  

     

     

    • #21
  22. Buckpasser Member
    Buckpasser
    @Buckpasser

    Lois Lane (View Comment):

    all they really wanted was that 7 year old to be able to go to school and learn how to read while they went to work.  

     

    I don’t think 7 year olds can learn to read in a face diaper, I mean mask.  We have consigned a generation of children to a life of ignorance.  Thank you teachers unions, politicians and anyone who wears a mask.

    • #22
  23. Raxxalan Member
    Raxxalan
    @Raxxalan

    Lois Lane (View Comment):
    People from elsewhere might not know this, but Knox County is not exactly Silicon Valley when it comes to wealth.  There are some people with a lot of resources, of course, but there are a lot more regular folk who really must rely on the public system for their families to function. They don’t have the luxury of being able to quit jobs or simply move.  This makes revolting against that system much harder, if that makes sense

    Unfortunately it does.  As we most things the consequences of elite action falls most heavily on those least able to deal with it.  I am sure this pretty much just empty virtue signaling.  It is going to hurt a lot of people and may even destroy a few lives along the way.  I am sure at some point we will be treated to the infamous omelet, egg metaphor.  I don’t know why these people hate children and the poor so much.  

    • #23
  24. Hammer, The (Ryan M) Inactive
    Hammer, The (Ryan M)
    @RyanM

    That is not a reasonable accommodation.  I would be very surprised if the decision is not reversed.

    • #24
  25. Victor Tango Kilo Member
    Victor Tango Kilo
    @VtheK

    Lois Lane (View Comment):
    For example, one that comes to mind focused on the lack of wheelchair access to a stripper pole at a strip joint.

    There was also a lawsuit to give handicapped people access to exit rows on aircraft. The plaintiffs admitted this out the lives of everyone on the plane at risk, but argued that evened out the odds for everyone dying in a crash instead of just the handicapped people. And this would be more fair. They lost, in a rare instance of common sense prevailing. 

    • #25
  26. Chuck Coolidge
    Chuck
    @Chuckles

    Barfly (View Comment):

    Chuck (View Comment):

    Lois Lane (View Comment):

    Chuck (View Comment):

    The consequences of State involvement in education.

    Well, this is a strange thing though. The ADA doesn’t apply to just education. I’m no lawyer, and I don’t pretend to be one on Ricochet. However, it seems to me that there are much, much bigger issues here than even state run education. I think of an accommodation being a wheelchair accessible building. But why couldn’t this be applied in larger ways–to private commerce–if it’s left to stand?

    It just seems to me that the ADA is being misused as a cudgel, abused per its intent.

    Yes, agreed, ADA is being used as a cudgel: But everybody has heard the old saying “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

    Good intentions gave us the Federal Reserve, IRS, Medicare, Medicaid, HHS, CDC, on and on and on ad nauseum.

    We’re going to have to realize: those were not “good intentions.”

    Perhaps not: but so far as I am aware they were publicly justified in that way.  Hard to trust a politician.

    • #26
  27. Lois Lane Coolidge
    Lois Lane
    @LoisLane

    Victor Tango Kilo (View Comment):

    Lois Lane (View Comment):
    For example, one that comes to mind focused on the lack of wheelchair access to a stripper pole at a strip joint.

    There was also a lawsuit to give handicapped people access to exit rows on aircraft. The plaintiffs admitted this out the lives of everyone on the plane at risk, but argued that evened out the odds for everyone dying in a crash instead of just the handicapped people. And this would be more fair. They lost, in a rare instance of common sense prevailing.

    That is wild but not at all surprising to me.  “Fairness” is a virtue that can be distorted into something ugly.  

    • #27
  28. The Scarecrow Thatcher
    The Scarecrow
    @TheScarecrow

    9thDistrictNeighbor (View Comment):

    Every other parent should demand that their child have an IEP that dictates that the least restrictive environment for their child is a classroom without a mask. Plenty of parents get IEPs so their kids have extra time on tests, so its not frivolous to state that a mask interferes with their child receiving an education in the least restrictive environment.

    But we shouldn’t have to do this! Sane people should not live this way.

    It’s like we’ve chosen to live in a big Monty Python sketch, only not a funny one.

    • #28
  29. Lois Lane Coolidge
    Lois Lane
    @LoisLane

    The Scarecrow (View Comment):

    9thDistrictNeighbor (View Comment):

    Every other parent should demand that their child have an IEP that dictates that the least restrictive environment for their child is a classroom without a mask. Plenty of parents get IEPs so their kids have extra time on tests, so its not frivolous to state that a mask interferes with their child receiving an education in the least restrictive environment.

    But we shouldn’t have to do this! Sane people should not live this way.

    It’s like we’ve chosen to live in a big Monty Python sketch, only not a funny one.

    I think it’s more like living in a novel by Franz Kafka….  

    • #29
  30. Lois Lane Coolidge
    Lois Lane
    @LoisLane

    Hammer, The (Ryan M) (View Comment):

    That is not a reasonable accommodation. I would be very surprised if the decision is not reversed.

    Yeah.  That’s what I thought when it was put in place in September.  Now it is March.  The whole world has changed.  Except what?  Kids being forced to wear masks in Knox County schools.  

    • #30
Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.