Judge tosses lawsuit against DeWitt schools, superintendent over masking order

DeWITT SCHOOLS  – A judge on Monday tossed out a lawsuit contending a mask mandate by DeWitt Public Schools was invalid.

Ingham County Circuit Judge Clinton Canady III found no merit in Adam Holland's claim that Superintendent Shanna Spickard's mask order is unenforceable because the school board had not approved it.

"Plaintiff has failed to show where a superintendent is required to report all of his/her actions to the board for such actions to be legitimate," Canady wrote in granting the school district's motion to dismiss the case. "If the court read (the law) in such a way, any superintendent would be relegated as a messenger who possesses no substantive authority to manage the day-to-day affairs of a school district."

Holland, who has two children attending DeWitt schools, argued the superintendent could not unilaterally require masks without a vote of the school board or input from parents and the community.

He asked the court to bar the district from enforcing the mandate.

On Monday, Holland said he was disappointed by the judge's ruling and doesn't know how he'll proceed. The time it takes to decide an appeal might push the case beyond the life of the mask policy, he noted.

School officials did not immediately comment on Canady's ruling.

The mask mandate was announced in August as the district was preparing to begin the current school year.

After Holland filed his suit in late October, school officials said they planned to continue the guidelines communicated to parents nearly two months earlier.

"Our goal continues to focus on keeping students in school, and our current mask plan has drastically reduced the number of quarantines, keeping students safely in the classrooms, athletes on the field/court, and many events/performances in person," Spickard said at the time in an email.

The school board said in an Oct. 12 statement it planned to keep the current mask guidelines in place so there would be fewer quarantines and more students could remain in the classroom. Board members said they could not ignore recommendations from health agencies. all of which were recommending masking in schools.

More:Parent files lawsuit against DeWitt schools, superintendent over mask mandate

In his ruling, Canady said the school board adopted a policy in 1998 granting the superintendent authority to develop guidelines regarding communicable diseases. including prevention and control.

In his suit, Holland referred to an incident in which a teacher and a fellow student asked his son to raise his mask to cover his nose, describing it as "mask shaming."

On Monday, he said his suit was about the superintendent's authority to issue the mask mandate, not about the effectiveness of masks or the potential harm they might cause.

He also said the district's actions were inconsistent with transparency provisions generally attached to COVID-19 mitigation policies. Those provisions "seem to bolster the importance of involving parents in this process," he said.

Contact Ken Palmer at kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @KBPalm_lsj.