Central York School Board to protest state mask mandate with legal brief

The Central York School Board decided Monday night to join Spring Grove Area School district in protesting the statewide mask mandate through an amicus brief.

An amicus brief is a document that allows people and businesses to add their insights and thoughts to a court case without being a plaintiff or defendant. They are to show the court that the final decision on a case will impact more people than the parties involved.

The brief would be submitted with the Corman et al. v. Acting Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Health case. The case alleges acting health secretary Alison Beam did not have the authority to issue the statewide mask mandate for schools.

Currently, there are 13 plaintiffs in the case, a mix of parents, private schools, and three school districts. West York School district is listed as a plaintiff on the case.

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Although the amicus brief was not part of the Central meeting agenda initially, discussions about the mask mandate led to the item being added in the middle of the meeting.

The deadline for filing the brief was set for Oct. 7, so the board needed to act quickly and decide whether it was going to split the cost with Spring Grove, which decided to cap spending at $4,000 during a board meeting, and submit a joint brief for consideration in the Corman case.

Central York proposed spending up to $2,000 on the brief.

Although the motion passed, there was debate between some of the board members.

“I believe in local control of school board issues. I don't believe in school board issues as they override the department of health,” board member Michael Wagner said. “It's a public health issue, or at least it's believed by many to be a public health issue, and I think that's the dividing line for me.”

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“To me, this is a way to make a statement, regardless of the particulars here we believe in local control,” board member Michael Strickler said. “I think it's worthwhile to support this if nothing else to reaffirm that districts should maintain local control.”

A handful of residents made their case on the brief.

Local educator Lauri Brady said she was disappointed with the board for discussing and deciding on the brief in one evening while so many curriculums the group should be reviewing have been shelved for years. 

The board has been at a standstill with many curriculum updates, which they claim was one of the reasons the diversity committee's proposed resource list was recently banned. Although the list was reinstated, many of the programs are still waiting for an update, like math and social studies. 

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“I'm listening to you discuss wasting time and taxpayer money on a political agenda that has nothing to do with education.” Brady said. “We ask people to step up for committees and be a part of conversations that go nowhere, and you want to spend time and taxpayer money fighting about a mask, a piece of cloth, and how it impacts our rights?”

Faith Casale lamented how long children have been wearing masks during the pandemic and urged the board to submit the brief.  

“It's not about a piece of cloth on our face, it's about our kids that are struggling in so many aspects,” Casale said. “It is important if this is something that is so simple as filing in a brief to make a statement and a stand for our children that says 'Let's see what can be done,' it's worth it.”

The board voted 6-2 to file the brief.

Those who voted for the motion were board members Veronica Gemma, Jodi Grothe, Vickie Guth, Kyle King, Tim Strickler and Chris Farling.

Against were Michael T. Wagner and board president Jane Johnson.

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“I think we all feel that there's an overreach here and we all have a position that we would like to have this decision made here at the local level, I just don't feel like we should be spending the taxpayer dollars, and I feel like it would have been nice to have some more public comment,” Johnson said.

The board is currently in the process of filing and will provide an update in a future meeting.