While it isn’t the focus of De Gisi’s case, he agreed that some of the students involved in the trial have struggled with virtual learning. “The whole idea is exactly the same.”Ĭooper added that some of his Perkiomen clients report that the district’s virtual learning option is not robust enough for kids with disabilities. “It’s not going to detrimentally impact other children or staff at that building to have a wheelchair around for kids that have physical disabilities that prevent them from walking up stairs,” said Cooper. Cooper related universal masking to other forms of inclusivity in school buildings, like a wheelchair ramp. 4, following which she will decide whether to make the universal mask policy permanent.ĭan Cooper, a special education attorney based in Bala Cynwyd, supports the judge’s decision to mandate masks. The next trial in front of Judge Beetlestone is on Feb.
All three have asthma, one student has chronic bronchitis and pneumonia, and another student has vocal cord dysfunction.Īccording to De Gisi, the plaintiffs claim the masking optional policy “discriminates against children because it forces them to either risk serious injury or death or to remove themselves from the buildings and remove their access to the buildings.” Their lawsuit states that the change of school policy “forces the parents of medically fragile school children with disabilities to make the shockingly unfair or unjust decision of deciding whether to pull their children out of in-person learning, causing mental harm and havoc on the child and family, or face the quantifiably increased risk of physical harm caused by exposure to severe illness or death as a result of COVID-19.”Īll three students are “medically vulnerable,” according to the suit. The three sets of Perkiomen parents who filed the suit are remaining anonymous, in “fear of retaliation and violence for this suit, due to the charged nature of the masked mandate debate,” according to a motion filed by their lawyer Carmen De Gisi.
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