Glenn Youngkin, Virginia’s Governor, and his administration are backing parents in a lawsuit brought against Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) over making masks optional for students.
The Governor, attorney general and superintendent of public instruction have requested to be included as a plaintiff, siding with concerned parents who want to choose what is best for their children’s wellbeing.
The lawsuit stems from Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s executive order stating parents had the right to choose if their child would be masked or not. Some public schools, mainly ones that reside in liberal areas, refused to comply with orders.
Youngkin’s executive order went into effect last Monday. However, in LCPS, students who claimed their right to mask were separated from masked-students and did not receive in-person instruction. LCPS’s Stone Bridge HS had taken it a step further and eventually suspended non-masked students for 10 days.
A statement released by gov. Attorney General Jason Miyares said in part, “When the pandemic started, Governor Northam used his emergency powers to close down places of worship, private businesses, and schools and impose a universal mask mandate. Nearly two years later, Governor Youngkin is using those same emergency powers to adapt to our current phase in the same pandemic, by giving parents the ability to opt out of a school mask mandate.”