The California Supreme Court has given Governor Gavin Newsom until Friday to respond to lawsuits seeking to enjoin his orders that bar schools opening for in-person learning.
The lawsuits, formerly known as “writ petitions” were filed by the Tyler and Bursch law firm on behalf of a coalition of parents, private schools, a charter school and the Orange County Board of Education.
Department of Public Health director Sandra Shewry was also named in the filings.
Attorney Robert Tyler told the California Globe that it was “fantastic, wonderful news” that the Supreme Court had accepted their writ petition because most of those filed are denied.
“By closing the schools of California to in-person learning, he [Newsom] is creating havoc for parents and children,” Tyler contended. “The California Constitution requires that all children receive an equal education. Our position is that he is creating an unequal burden on economically disadvantaged families.”
He said that poorer families don’t have the money to pay for learning pods that are popping up all over California. And that one of his clients is a single mother who works full time and can’t stay at home with her child for online learning. “For many single parents, they have to choose between educating their child, and putting food in their table.”
One writ petition was filed in the California Supreme Court on behalf of private schools: Immanuel Schools; Linfield Christian School; Calvary Murrieta; Calvary Chapel Of San Jose; Clovis Christian Schools; and parents Regina Bailey; Nicole Hill; Katie MacDonnell; and Jenny Pierce Heil.
The other was filed on behalf of the Orange County Board of Education, which wants to reopen schools and the Palm Lane Charter School. The parents represented in that case are Juaquin Cruz; Angela Miller; and Cecilia Ochoa.
The private schools case says that the policy discriminates against private schools as a class because they do not receive state funding that makes online learning possible.
“Governor Newsom’s defiance of the rule of law and disregard for the constitution usurped Private Schools’ contractual rights and detrimentally effected the learning of students across the State of California in violation of the Equal Protection Clause,” the complaint says.
It says that “the orders discriminate against an identifiable class, students who attend private schools in the State of California. Private school students are a unique and identifiable class outside of public schools as they do not obtain state funding and thus, cannot obtain the same benefits of distance learning which are facilitated through the governmental supplements. Thus, private school students are at a disadvantage as a unique and identifiable class.”
Citing the low rates at which children spread the corona virus and get infected the request for relief also said the closure order can not survive the legal requirement of strict scrutiny because it does not serve any rational objective. “The Governor’s orders, even by scientific standards, fail to meet a strict or even a rational scrutiny as there is an absence of evidence and no medical basis for continuing to keep schools closed.”
It also says that the closure order violates the California constitution and the United States Constitution because of its “interference with petitioners contractual rights.”
That basically means sending your kids to a private school amounts to a contract and Newsom is interfering with the contract being carried out by ordering the schools closed.
“The Governor’s Executive Orders and the [California Department of Public Health} directives substantially impair these contracts as the mandatory implementation of distance learning impedes Petitioner’s ability to complete its contractual obligations which places some Petitioners in a position of serious financial jeopardy due to the failure to comply with their contractual obligations, loss of students, and the assumption of contractual liability stemming from hundreds of potential breach of contract allegations from parents.”
It says that Newsom exceeded his authority to issue the directive.
“Governor Newsom wields the Executive Powers under the State of Emergency like a sword, exercising greater discretion than that of granting a license or waivers.”
“Five months after the declared state of emergency, the Governor continues to suspend liberty rights, including those of students and private schools, for unlimited durations based on unproven projections and contrary to scientific reports from experts and the CDC.”
The complaint on behalf of public schools and public school parents says that the closure order violates the rights of special needs students under the Individual Disabilities Education Act because they need in person learning to meet their needs. “Thus, in order to meet the mandatory requirements of IDEA, public school districts must conduct in person instruction which is specially designed to aid disabled students and meet their specialized education needs in a manner which is consistent with the student’s IEP.”
It says the order also violates the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires reasonable accommodations for anybody with disabilities, because it prevents them from going to schools and getting kind specialized instruction that can’t be achieved through online learning.
Echoing the complaint brought by private schools and private school parents the public school complaint says the closure orders have no rational basis. “The Executive Orders and subsequent directives cannot survive a strict scrutiny challenge where, as here, it is not the least restrictive means of furthering the government’s goal of reducing the transmission of coronavirus as demonstrated through the conceded development of scientific data relating to the transmission in minors, as well as studies reporting a low risk to students and indicating that less than 2% of COVID-19 transmissions occur in individuals under the age of 20.”
As Tyler told the California Globe, “the data and science shows the schools should be opened.”
View Comments (90)
Will be anxiously waiting and watching to see what happens with this and hoping for the best. We're due for some good news in this rapidly failing hellhole.
What is the purpose of having young children wear "dust masks" at school? They do not protect from viruses. These masks allow the inhalation of our own CO2, a toxic waste product that is never to be inhaled for several hours a day.
After Newsom’s response has been filed with the Supreme Court clerk on Friday August 28. Tyler & Bursch will have until Sept. 1 to prepare a reply.
Please keep us all informed #californiaglobe
Thumbs up ????!!!
This is encouraging. Newsom has done detrimental damage to special-ed students. The ADA has been violated.
It becomes more clear that Newsom and his administration have never had a clear plan to reopen schools and businesses. When questioned by the press to give guidance to cities and counties that have been taken off the dubious watch list, he says, “we will get back to you”. Some kind of leadership!
http://www.recallgavin2020.com
You're so right, Cali Girl, especially about the damage done to special ed students. And to non-special-ed students! Also a great point, that I don't remember hearing before, is that the ADA has been violated.
Newsom apparently knows that saying "we will get back to you" and then never getting back to you is an exquisite kind of torture for Californians whose lives are on hold. What kind of person does this? The answer is a person like our governor and he is not going to stop doing it. He likes it.
Yup kick his ass to the curb
Agree 100%. Everyone I know has signed the petition. Let's get this criminal out
I don’t think that the California Supreme Court will accept the explanation “I’ll get back to you”.
Sadly, stranger things have happened.
#ISTANDWITHIMMANUEL.......
WayTo go Bob This is good news I hope we hear something soon it’s really tough on the teachers as well as the students and every family in California
Sounds like none of u really care about your childrens lives Better safe then sorry. Sounds like a republican group wanting to disregard how serious and life threatening the virus is. Govoner thank you for caring great job!
You’ve got to be using sarcasm?! If you cared about children you would see the mental, physical, emotional, psychological, social, developmental irreversible damage is being done to each and everyone of them under these executive orders. Newsom is nothing more than a control freak who hides behind his billions of dollars his family ties and oh yeah his fraudulent real estate deals with dishing out orders to the rest of the peasants. The science doesn’t back up the lockdowns whatsoever. Has nothing to do with political party it has to do with pulling our country above its knees. I’m sure you and many other Californians have enjoyed sitting back collecting that unemployment but the rest of us would like to get back to work and have our children properly educated & social !
Amen!! It’s people like Kayla Johnson who need to pull their heads out of their asses. Democrats, get off your lazy asses and contribute to the rebuilding of our economy rather than sucking the tits of the hard-working republican citizens who earn an honest living.
Sorry but gaslighting people with your ridiculous liberal BS won’t work. I think you are scaring children will your lies & that is hurting them not us Kayla. You stay home. You are a smug bully who is blind to reality. You are the evil one in this scenario. Sit back down.
Right on!!
Right on Saltysandra! That is a perfect explanation of what is happening.
YES!!!!!
Here here ! Well said Sandra!! 1000% agree!
My High school daughter is emotionally suffering not being able to be social and make friends.
I work full time as single mom so she stays home alone all day. How is that healthy? Pray they open up!! Don’t get me started on the unemployment system and the lazy folks who abuse it!
SaltySandra I completely agree!! Very well said!
No what it is it this online learning don’t work for many students in many households. Also my kid is one of those students with an IEP and was blind all last year. We have many children and she is so far behind and is not getting her needs met. She has an IEP for a reason and the state is required to meet her needs why do you think they have the disability act in place? Also she is not in a low grade she is on a crucial part of school 6th grade is no joke and if she can’t catch up and get help there will be serious long term effects like how will she graduate 7th and 8th grade or go on to high school and even have a shot at being successful? How will she graduate and she plays sports and if u can’t maintain a 2.0 you can’t play any sports. So you think it’s ok for her to not have a shot at an education or any chance of being successful from this point on? This is not just about today tomorrow or next week this is about the many years left of school she has and the rest of her life! Don’t sit there and act like you or the fucking govenor have the right to take that from her. So get a grip and open your mind and maybe try to understand that this virus will go away but you can’t get this time back for these kids that need help today! And until you have walked on the other side and have experienced what I or my kids have gone through then you need to sit there and shit up. Furthermore if anyone wants to let these politicians scare you so much that ur afraid to live your life then you choose to stay home well kids that need help are getting their needs met. P. S. Just know we are all going to die one day tomorrow is not promised to anyone even those who choose to baracade themselves in their homes are not safe from death.
Yes, Kierstin, I totally agree with you. The people who fear COVID so much that they 100% support these tyrannical, abnormal, and unhealthy lockdowns would tell you that nothing matters but the lives of the people who have died from COVID. But that’s bull. Your kids’s lives matter. The fact that my daughter is being forbidden from going to a playground and socializing with other children, as is her duty and right as a two year old, matters. Thank you for comment. It mattered to me.
Again another great comment and totally agree ! We need to not live in fear for a virus which has a 98% survival rate!! CDC just changed guideline AGAIN - you don’t need to quarantine or be tested if you’ve been exposed. If you fear the virus lock yourself in your bubble wrap.
Pathetic!! Just bury yourself alive for years if you believe in that propaganda but others should be free! Period! This nonsense has to stop! We are paying taxes so our kids can go to school and receive adequate education in a socially acceptable environment! Enough of that Newsom tyrant! He should be recalled...Dictator!!!
We are in the middle of a recall. Look up RECALLGAVIN2020. Sign a petition. Everybody!
Wow. You really are gullible if you think Newscum is doing anything to help anyone. But himself.
You must not work
2k deaths in California for people under 60 years old. Justify that. I guess you support poverty, bankruptcies & increased suicide. Bravo, you must be proud.
The decision to wear masks should be up to you. If you think the masks help, and you are concerned about your child attending school, then by all means go ahead and keep your kid's from school, for it to be forced upon everybody due to the ones who live in fear is wrong. Let the people weigh out their own medical decisions. Let the ones in fear continue to live in fear, but don't hold those back who have done their research and found how misconstrued the evidence is. Fear is a tactic used to gain control, only when fear arises (as history has shown countless times), people are willing to have their rights taken.
No, it sounds like YOU are demanding that we all comply with YOUR misguided fears, despite all the scientific evidence to the contrary. Children are at exponentially greater risk from continued school closure than they would be from exposure to Covid-19.
If YOU are THAT afraid of a virus that presents with mild-to-no symptoms in kids, and has a global survivability/recovery rate of 99.973%, then by alleans, please keep your child(ren) home to "keep them safe". Practice what you preach and show the rest of us just how much more you care about your progeny by committing to homeschooling them, while the rest of us sacrifice our young on the alter of living our best life by sending them to the obvious cesspools that are our schools. ????
It's astounding at the level of audacious entitlement on display these days as far too many make unreasonable, illogical demands of millions of others, despite being at direct odds with countless experts and mountains of data to the contrary.
Did you read the science? You can’t say you believe in science and act like you don’t.
Appears to me as though you were deprived of education yourself by the looks of your post.
Sorry but gaslighting people with your ridiculous liberal BS won’t work. I think you scaring children with disinformation is hurting them not us Kayla. You stay home. You are the evil one in this scenario.
Do you honestly believe that intelligent, educated, and more importantly, INFORMED parents would put their own children in a "serious and life threatening" situation? Read the data; it's available for all to see. As a parent I greatly resent your comment. My children mean more to me than anything. If comparing a controlled environment with the same group of people meeting together regularly, following appropriate safety procedures versus the thousands of random people shopping at a Walmart (with their children by the way) everyday, which do you think is the greater threat? I don't know of a single Walmart that has been ordered to close for even 1 day during the entire pandemic.
If you feel it’s best for your children to stay home and safe please feel free to keep them home. For those of us with children struggling beyond measure, please let us make our own decisions. Every child is in a different situation and and it’s unfair to put them all into the same box- a box in which they do not ALL fit into.
Kayla Johnson sounds like a member of the teachers Union, which is nothing more than an overpaid ignorant mob of lazy liberals who have mastered the art of exploiting children, the poor and the weak for their own agenda.
Sounds like aq comment from a drop out.
Wow, do you have rooms for rent. It is no longer about your health or your kids or for the schools. It is a big political scam and Newsom and His Aunt Nancy Pelosi are some at the most non-caring people you will find. I STAND for AMERICA and our freedoms. You need to go else where and live.
You’re an idiot if you think this lock down is helping anyone. I have adopted 4 special needs kids and they are NOT getting what they need and is in their IEP. plus they don’t understand why their world has been turned upside down. Their behaviors are getting worse every day. They need to be back in school. If you think Newscum is right about this, I invite you to spend a few days with families of special needs children. Stop being a Republican hater and shut your mouth, about things you know nothing about!!
Only .0003% have died from this. Less than the flu. So what’s your worry??? More people die in car accidents, maybe we shouldn’t be driving either.
The rest of the world is opening up, just not us!!!???? Ask yourself why!
Control, control, control!!!
To me, only the sick should be quarantined, not the healthy. It’s like if you are sick you stay home from school or work so you don’t get others sick. They need to stop the would if this, would if that game. We are not pawns in a chess game!!! If you’re sick, stay home.
Follow the science and the data, no reason for children to not be at school, most states already sent their kids back to school. I don’t understand why California takes this stand with this dictator Newsome
Exactly. Suddenly everything's safe and ok because having their children home and assuming the responsibility of their education isnt comducive to their accustomed lifestyle. I'm in the Bay Area and its only getting worse so if the naysayers force their children to serve as guinea pigs in a school setting, I'll be opting for full distance learning for the rest of the year.
Kayla i agree with you. My childs and familes health is top priority and im thankful to have a governor whom is doing his job to keep our kids and families healthy
There is not one person here that doesn't care for their children, and why would you say that? And "Republican group wanting to disregard"? So by your words, all republicans care not on this and how serious it is? Nice try at demonizing persons you don't even know. I would encourage you to read up on what the CDC as well as the WHO as well as many other persons in the medical field are saying now. And Newsom has exceeded his authority on not just this issue. He is drunk on his own view of his self importance and is the clinical definition of a Narcissist.
Sounds like none of u really care about your childrens lives Better safe then sorry. Sounds like a republican group wanting to disregard how serious and life threatening the virus is. Govoner thank you for caring. great job! Now they wont post this Democrats opinion!
I think the Govonor has and is doing the responsible and safest thing for the future of those without a voice. Our children! I applaud you govonor and thank you for the childrens sake
He and those like him silence those without a voice before they are born.
Less than 0.1% have to have Covid19 or 100 in 100,000 people for the counties to reopen. That means 99.9% of the people will not have it! Seems like an absurdly high threshold. Covid is very dangerous for some people, but that threshold is absurd. 99%....ok, but 99.9%?
Also, some schools are much smaller and able to open safely under CDC guidelines. The Governor should never have mandated this for schools that had the capacity to open- if he’s not going to pay those schools and if the parents still have to pay for school, he should have no say in what they do.
Look at what some districts like Glendale are doing- opening up as “childcare to facilitate online learning”. How is that different than opening schools, especially if those schools were to be set up exactly the same way with 12 or less students and all proper safety precautions? This Governor is a joke.
Kayla - You don't even know how to spell governor??? Like three or four times... Smh. What a display of your intelligence.
Kayla, this is not about a virus. It is about control of the people. I’ve been in infection control for 45 years & I’ve seen much worse communicable health issues. We have never been shut down in the past. Especially for a virus that has a .03% mortality rate!! Living under a Marxist form of government that Newsom is leading has & will have far greater consequences then this virus has had on society.
I am hoping this will show that our Governor has been extremely capricious with his re-opening plans. Tanning salons good, haircuts bad. Target good. Mom and Pop store bad. Gyms good. Ice rinks bad. As a parent of a special needs child on the high end of the spectrum who attends regular classes, I can tell you that “distanced learning” stinks. He has straight A’s. But he’s cried in the bathroom at night because he is having so much trouble feeling connected and understanding the social cues. Am I worried about COVID? Sure. But I’m also worried he’ll get hit by a car or murdered by a random stranger. The odds of him dying seem to be higher with the car and the stranger. Science shows children are at extremely low risk of becoming seriously ill or dying from COVID-19. Between Jan. 22 and May 30, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded only 13 deaths in children ages 0 to 9, out of more than 20,000 confirmed cases, and 33 deaths among those ages 10 to 19, out of more than 49,000 cases, a case fatality rate of around 0.06% to 0.07%. He has a better chance of dying of heart disease from comfort eating cookies than he does dying of C-19.
Nothing but PUKE and YUCK and I sure hope you are not a teacher. Can’t wait until they recall him.
What science do the parochial schools, all Protestant, suggest that the closure is not warranted? I also don’t see any Catholic or Episcopal schools in the lawsuit. They and their dioceses are the largest private /parochial school providers in California. Why have they been excluded?
Immanuel is a Catholic High School.
Immanuel is a Mennonite school...not Catholic.
If the Supreme Court allows schools to open with high case counts and the virus spread worsens then it will be on them. Takes Newsom‘a responsibility away. Really close to opening in a lot of counties anyway.
Didn't Newsom and his thugs say they had no documents of any kind supporting the shutdown? I wonder if that will work with the Supremes?