Parents Sue Virginia School System Over Mask Mandate

Three parents filed suit against a northern Virginia school district complaining its enforcement of a mask mandate defies state policy.

Fight For Schools announced the lawsuit against the Loudoun County School Board in an emailed press release Tuesday evening.

“Virginia law guarantees the rights of parents to make critical decisions affecting their children, particularly when those decisions concern their education and well-being,” the parents said in the lawsuit.

Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) is one of the public school systems in northern Virginia that vowed to defy an executive order by Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin requiring districts to allow parents to opt their children out of mask mandates.

Past controversies between the school board and parents surrounded allegations that members of the Loudoun County school board were part of a secret Facebook group targeting parents opposed to the use of critical race theory in the system’s curriculum, the use of pornographic books in classes, and claims that the school system covered up a sexual assault by a “gender fluid” student.

“LCPS willingly followed former Governor Northam’s Executive Orders and routinely excused its actions by blaming pointing the finger at him and saying ‘we’re just doing what we’re told,’” Ian Prior, the executive director of Fight For Schools, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Now that Governor Youngkin has issued an executive order giving parents a choice to make decisions for the health and welfare of their children, LCPS shows just how hyper-partisan it’s leaders are.”

“I commend these brave parents for being willing to stand up and fight yet another brazen and illegal action from failed Superintendent Scott Ziegler and Loudoun County Public Schools,” Prior added.

“LCPS does not comment on pending litigation,” district spokesman Wayde Byard told the DCNF in an email late Tuesday night.