The rating stands at Virginia Faculties 1, Gov. Glenn Youngkin 0, after a choose dominated on Friday that college boards could disregard—for now—Youngkin’s try and ban pupil masks mandates.
Virginia Circuit Courtroom Decide Louise DiMatteo granted seven faculty boards momentary restraining orders in opposition to Youngkin’s directive. On his first day in workplace, the governor had signed an govt order stating that, as of January 24, faculties have been now not allowed to make college students put on masks on campus.
On the day the order was to take impact, faculty boards in Alexandria, Falls Church, Hampton, and Richmond teamed up with their counterparts in Arlington, Fairfax, and Prince William counties to problem it. Collectively, the seven boards characterize greater than 350,000 college students from throughout the state.
The varsity authorities argued that Youngkin overstepped his authorized authority, and questioned whether or not an govt order can trump the choice of native faculty officers. DiMatteo agreed that the query deserves additional consideration. “I’m not right here to determine who is correct and improper on masking. This case is a query of who has authority,” she mentioned.
“The order permits faculties to proceed to guard the well being and well-being of all college students and employees. Whereas the authorized course of on this matter continues, immediately’s ruling preserves the prevailing insurance policies and practices in Virginia faculty divisions, which incorporates masking necessities,” the varsity boards introduced in a joint assertion.
Each side consider an attraction is probably going, in keeping with reviews from NBC 4. However, the authorized enjoyable doesn’t cease there. Youngkin nonetheless has at the least three different authorized battles in play, all of which pertain to the exact same order.