MILFORD, PA — The parents of the five students suing the Delaware Valley School District (DVSD) are back in court. Their lawyer is asking the judge to reconsider a November 11 ruling that lifted a temporary restraining order that required masks to be worn in school.  

At the time, federal judge Robert D. Mariani indicated that the actual harm may be “possible and perhaps likely” but are examples of only “future potential or threatened harms.” Since that ruling, two of those students were quarantined after being exposed to the virus in the classroom from non-mask wearing students, causing them to be separated from their families and removed from school.

Claiming that this new development supported his “state-created danger” assertion, and prevented the constitutionally protected “freedom of association,” attorney Ken Behrend of Behrend Law Group, LLC is asking the court to reimpose the injunction that kept masking in place until the lawsuit was resolved. A response by the district was required on January 5.  

The law does not set a timeline on the judge’s decision.

This lawsuit is overlaid by a recent court decision removing the mask mandate and Gov. Tom Wolf’s pre-omicron declaration that the state-imposed mask mandate would be lifted in mid-January.

Dr. John Bell, superintendent of DVSD, confirmed that the death of a Delaware Valley School District bus driver and a contract nurse have been attributed to COVID-19. He also reported that the quarantine period for close contacts to an infected person has been reduced to five days from 10.

For more coverage of this story, see the links below:

DV board, administration spar over masks

Federal judge pauses DV’s new mask policy

DVSB challenges own expert

Multi-pronged attack on school mask mandates

COVID-19 closes DVSD

DV mum about shut-down details