Brian Hagberg
ERIE – A second continuance has been granted to the defense in a lawsuit brought against the Warren County School District over masking.
The evidentiary and preliminary injunction hearing that had been originally scheduled for Oct. 13 and rescheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 19, is now set for Monday, Nov. 22 at 10 a.m.
The district’s attorney filed a motion for a second continuance on Oct. 15 and federal district judge Susan Paradise Baxter granted the second continuance on Oct. 18.
Michael Musone filed the motion on behalf of the district “in order to give the parties additional time to reach a possible resolution of this case.”
The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Erie on Oct. 4. The defendants named in the suit are the Warren County School District, the WCSD School Board as an entity, and each member of the school board as an individual.
The plaintiffs include nine minors, eight of whom are WCSD students, and their parents. One or more of the students either have disabilities and/or are under the age of 12 and unable to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
The suit arose due to the action taken at the Sept. 13 school board meeting. That night, the board voted to adopt a measure that would allow parents to claim an exemption from the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s indoor mask order without substantiation from a medical professional.
That measure, along with another that called for an “only warnings” policy for those who violated the mask requirement on district transportation, was rescinded during a special meeting on Oct. 8.
