A religious school is suing the state of Michigan to stop the enforcement of a mandate requiring students to wear masks in the classroom, saying it violates the Constitution and their religious beliefs.
“Mask mandates across the state and in Ingham County violate the families’ rights to freedom of religious exercise, freedom of speech, freedom of association, due process and equal protection,” the lawsuit from Resurrection School reads.
“In accordance with the teachings of the Catholic faith, Resurrection School believes that every human has dignity and is made in God’s image and likeness,” the lawsuit says. “Unfortunately, a mask shields our humanity. And because God created us in His image, we are masking that image.”
“The mask mandate forces every Michigander, including Plaintiffs, to become the government’s patient without the citizen’s consent,” the lawsuit continues.
Two parents have joined the lawsuit, filed by the Great Lakes Justice Center and American Freedom Law Center, against Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and Ingham County Health Officer Linda Vail, arguing that the mandate is a “symbol of oppression and an attempt by the government to control the citizenry.”
Vail issued an order earlier this month that mandates mask-wearing throughout the entire day for elementary school children. The new mandate came after the Michigan Supreme Court struck down Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s pandemic emergency orders.
The lawsuit claims that the new mandates do not make exceptions for situations when students can safely social distance and the effects it has on the students’ ability to “fully engage in religious education.”
Resurrection School, located in Lansing, said it is willing to take “responsible measures to ensure health and safety,” including personal hygiene, screening, social distancing measures, and scheduling that prevents classes from having to interact in crowded hallways. However, the school argues the new order is too broad.
“Methods that strive to promote safety but have a deleterious effect on a child’s social and emotional development do not promote the health and well-being of the whole child as Catholic social teaching strives to do,” the lawsuit says.
One of the parents involved in the lawsuit, Stephanie Smith, claimed she was forced to pull her fourth-grade son from in-person classes because he was having trouble acclimating to wearing a mask. Smith said her son has severe breathing issues and isn’t able to wear a mask for more than 30 minutes without experiencing difficulty breathing.
The other parent, Christopher Mianecki, says the mask has impeded his youngest daughter, who is in kindergarten, from receiving a quality education.
“Wearing a facial covering impedes her ability to be heard, to socialize, to engage in religious fellowship, and it impedes her ability to acclimate to new surroundings and new people,” the lawsuit reads.
He claims she also has difficulty with speech, and the mask “impedes her teacher’s ability to see her mouth to determine if her mouth is in the proper position to say letters and sounds correctly.”
Mandatory masking causes families to “contribute to a false public statement that all people are in fact diseased” and causes them to surrender their “freedom to the government, particularly in light of the facts of this current declared pandemic,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit also claims that the mask mandate violates state law, lacking authority under the Michigan Public Health Code.
