Lee's Summit R-7 School District is among the 47 school districts across the state that Attorney General Eric Schmitt sued for requiring masks to protect against COVID-19 and now the school district has filed a counterclaim asking a judge to declare that Schmidt acted beyond his authority.
“I disagree with the school district,” said Dr. Bradley Jones, a family physician in Jefferson City. “The school overstepped their authority to tell kids they have to wear a mask. The school district needs to stick to teaching kids math, English, and history.”
The counterclaim tests whether state law permits school districts to require masks and the reach of the attorney general’s authority.
“Schools know nothing about medicine and children are not even hardly at risk for COVID,” Jones told the St. Louis Record. “Even if they get it, the deaths from COVID for kids is less than 10 and all of them had cardiology problems that required surgery as an infant. More have died from the vaccine already. Masks do nothing. They are nothing more than virtue signaling.”
Katy Bergen, public relations director for Lee's Summit R-7 School District, declined to comment.
"The district does not have any additional comment on litigation regarding the Attorney General," she told the St. Louis Record in an online communication. "Our position is reflected clearly in court documents."
In the counter complaint, counsel for the school district argue that Schmitt ordering schools to cease masking was unlawful and that the district has no obligation to comply.
Jones accuses the school district of government overreach.
“We are getting carried away with the school boards thinking they are smarter than doctors when they're really not and they are basing their decisions off of incorrect data, to begin with,” Jones added. “It all boils down to Fauci being incorrect about virtually everything. He has not been correct about anything in this so we just need to quit with all this stupidity.”
As previously reported, Schmitt tried to drop his lawsuit against Lee’s Summit but the school district is proceeding.
In a March pleading, Lee’s Summit stated, “The Missouri Constitution does not establish the attorney general as an autocrat-in-chief whose orders on any topic of the day must be obeyed.”
Schmitt did not respond to requests for comment.