On February 14, 2022, Mayor Bowser, the Mayor of the District of Columbia, announced a lift of the masking mandate that stated people must wear masks indoors for all activities in the District, such as in restaurants and bars, concerts, and sporting events. With this being said, the children who attend Catholic schools in the District still are required to wear masks all day in their classrooms. The defendants believe that requiring these children to wear masks in their classrooms for seven hours a day, while allowing other children and adults to not wear masks anywhere else, is simply irrational. Even Congress, located in the District of Columbia, lifted its mask mandate for Members of Congress and their staff. The Plaintiffs involved in this case, Sheila Dugan and Matthew Johnson, are the parents that exercise their religion by sending their children to a Catholic school and believe that sending their children to this school provides them with important, faith-based information which is suitable for their children’s stage in life. The Catholic school is still under the mask mandate although there has been both secular and other religious activities that do not require masking, such as attending Mass. The plaintiffs claim that the mask mandate may appear unconstitutional, but more importantly, it is severely impeding upon the children’s Catholic formation and education. The children have to wear the masks for seven hours a day which has led the children to have headaches and dizziness. The children also complain frequently about difficulty in breathing and physical discomfort in class, which only distracts them from the material they are learning. Adding to this, the children have also been faced with multiple disciplinary acts due to mask wearing and the plaintiffs add that their children often have trouble hearing or understanding their teachers due to the masks. With this, the children are not only missing out on social and educational opportunities in their classroom, but also have completely lost their interest in school. With the background information presented, is requiring children who attend Catholic schools in the District of Columbia to wear masks for the duration of the school day a violation of their free exercise of religion under the First Amendment? In addition, does requiring children in Catholic schools to wear masks for the duration of the school day cause a substantial burden on their education and religion?
For starters, looking into more factual allegations about COVID-19, over the past couple months the vaccines have started to take off and be a beneficial way to mitigate the spread of the highly contagious virus. With this, schools have been found to be safer than the general community due to the fact that they have been using testing, frequent hand washing, and hand-sanitation stations throughout the course of COVID-19. In addition, the communicative aspect of education, especially regarding religion, is completely lost with the masking. In order to properly engage in the process, it is key for children to be able to read facial expressions when learning to read, speak articulately, and develop rhetorical skills. The parents of these Catholic school children have held a town hall meeting for concerned parents and wrote letters regarding the COVID-19 restrictions on schools to the District and the D.C. Department of Health. Days later the D.C. Department of Health’s General Counsel stalled by responding that it would need additional time to review the revised CDC guidelines while the D.C. Department of Health did not respond at all.
Under the First Amendment, the Constitution states that no law should prohibit the free exercise of religion. In this case, Mayor Bowser as well as the D.C. Health Department continues to burden children in Catholic schools with requiring them to wear a mask for the entirety of the school day. Therefore, requiring masks solely for Catholic schools in the District violates the free exercise of religion of the parents and the children due to the fact that they cannot practice their religion without being burdened by the state. Looking into surrounding areas masking policies, the Districts neighbor, Maryland did not impose a masking mandate for private schools and lifted the statewide public school mask mandate. Most recently, on March 4, 2022, the parents sent an additional request to relieve the mask mandate due to the fact that other colleges and universities, like the Catholic University of America, were dropping their campus mask mandates. Due to these surrounding circumstances, I believe that Mayor Bowser and the D.C Health Department is burdening children in Catholic schools. Due to the fact that the children are complaining about physical reactions to the masks and because COVID-19 has been mitigated through vaccines and immunity, I believe there is also a compelling state interest for the children not to wear a mask. Going to another level, it seems as though Mayor Bowser’s mask mandate is not neutral to all people in the District, and therefore, seems discriminatory to the Catholic religion in my opinion. I believe that in this case, the children's health needs to be prioritized. With this being said, there also needs to be a line between church and state. By allowing students in Catholic schools to go maskless does not imply that Mayor Bowser establishes the Catholic church, therefore I see no reason why these children are still wearing masks in school.
Link for Maryland mask mandate:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/02/22/mask-mandate-maryland/
Link for Catholic University of America mask mandate:
"The Case Against Masks at School":
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/01/kids-masks-schools-weak-science/621133/
3 comments:
If I am not mistaken, this case is referring to private Catholic schools. In that case, I do not believe there is no way to force them to stop requiring face masks through the Supreme Court because of a lack of government funding in the school. Like Bucknell University, a private institution can make any rules they would like, even if the state has other ones. We are still wear masks in class even though the state has lifted the mask laws in public places.
Now, a real question would be one regarding whether or not the government had the right to require masks in public places during the pandemic. Technically under the Constitution they did not, but because of a greater state interest they did.
I am not too sure what religion has to do with this case because there is noting relating to the absence of masks and Christianity.
I do not believe the Supreme Court could make these private schools lift their mask mandates unless they had some compelling reason that fell under the First Amendment. Children losing interest in school and getting dizzy does not have to do with Christianity.
As Meghan states, I also take great issue with the lack of neutrality. I am unsure as to why religious schools would be specifically required to continue masking while others are not. I don't think this is a fair policy, however, I also don't believe it to be a violation of the student's religious rights. Even if the state is overstepping by requiring masking, it does not inhibit their exercise of religion. If that were the case and masking made it too difficult to learn and practice religion then people would have stopped attending religious schools and religious services altogether. While there is certainly an argument for the quality of education, especially for young children who learn a great deal about language and emotion through observing people's faces, it does not inhibit their learning to a degree where it is unconstitutional. I don't really see the free exercise argument here considering they are still allowed to attend school and engage in all of the same activities, the only difference being a piece of fabric.
Neutrality is definitely a big issue in this case. If other schools are able to not wear masks, then the Catholic schools should be able to do the same. It seems like this would only be fair. I would need to know more info on the case but I do wonder whether it is the mayor deciding that the catholic schools still need to wear masks or if it is the administration of the schools themselves. The answer to that question changes my opinion on this case. If it is the mayor forcing Catholic schools to keep wearing masks and allowing everyone else to not wear them, then I believe that this is a clear violation of individuals' first amendment rights. However, if it is the school administration deciding to keep the mask mandate, then I believe that that is their right. As a private institution that isn't funded by the government, they are able to make and enforce their own rules. Therefore, if they want to keep the mandate it is their right to do so and wouldn't violate the constitution.
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