Missouri School Board Association Says Districts Can Make Health and Safety Rules

(Farmington) The Missouri Attorney General’s Office is suing at least 45 K through 12 public school districts around the state for what it calls illegally enforcing mask mandates.

All of Missouri’s charter schools have mask requirements but they are not being sued.

Attorney General Eric Schmitt, a Republican running for U.S. Senate, cites a recent Cole County Court ruling he says does not give school districts the authority to impose public health orders.

But Melissa Randol, the executive director of the Missouri School Boards Association, says state statute does give local school boards the authority to make health and safety rules.

Randol says state statute shows a school board has control of the district it represents and the last thing schools want to do is spend taxpayer dollars on a court fight.

Locally, the Dunklin and Fox school districts in Jefferson County have been sent cease and desist letters from the attorney general about those schools’ mask mandates because those districts decided to put the mandates back in place for safety purposes.