Lawsuit challenges D.C. mask mandate in private schools

A faith-based advocacy group is suing the District of Columbia over the city’s mask mandate on behalf of parents who send their elementary school children to Catholic schools.

The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a lawsuit in federal court arguing that Mayor Muriel Bowser and the city government are violating the First Amendment rights of the students in private schools by requiring them to wear masks after having lifted the COVID-19 mandate for most other activities, including at crowded bars and restaurants, gyms and sports venues.

“And yet, the children who attend Catholic schools in the District must continue to wear masks in their classrooms all day,” the lawsuit reads.

The city mandate “requiring the children to wear masks in their Catholic school classrooms — while allowing children and adults to not wear masks nearly everywhere else — is arbitrary, unscientific, and irrational,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit says it doesn’t make sense for a child to be able to sit for hours without a mask at a Wizards game at the crowded Capital One Arena when the same child “must cover her face for seven hours a day, the moment she steps into her Catholic school building.”

Ms. Bowser lifted the mask mandate for most activities on Feb. 14.

“It’s legally baseless to say that private schools can’t make their own decisions regarding masks while nearly all other private entities can,” ADF senior counsel Matt Bowman said in a news release. “The mayor’s actions are unfairly punishing these schools.”

“In most counties, private schools weren’t even required to wear masks, and in most public schools, the mask mandates are lifted,” Mr. Bowman said. “We urge Mayor Bowser to repeal her illegal mandate on religious schools immediately.”

The lawsuit came a week after attorneys for the Alliance Defending Freedom sent a letter to the director of the D.C. Health Department asking Miss Bowser and “department officials lift the mask mandate for children, staff, and teachers at religious schools.”

The plaintiffs — Sheila Dugan and Matthew Johnson — are from Maryland and send their children to Blessed Sacrament School.

The lawsuit noted that Catholic University of America no longer requires masks in most of its indoor campus spaces.

The Archdiocese of Washington said it is aware of but is not a part of the lawsuit, adding that it has contacted the mayor’s office about its COVID policies, WTOP Radio reported Tuesday.

D.C. Schools Chancellor Lewis D. Ferebee tweeted Tuesday that masks “are still required indoors at all DC Public Schools for students, staff, and visitors.”

The mayor’s office did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.