Some North County school districts are taking the state to court for the right to reopen.
Scott Davison, with the Carlsbad Parents Association, said the lawsuit started when parents approached him about the toll the school closures was having on students.
“Their kids were starting to break down. A lot of (parents) felt (students) were just lonely, or bored, or quiet, But they were really having some serious mental health issues. They were acting out and engaging in self harm,” Davison said.
Now, some North County parents and school districts are taking legal action after the state shut down their reopening plans.
The six North County districts involved are Carlsbad, San Dieguito, Poway, Oceanside, San Marcos and Vista.
Davison says the school’s reopening plans were approved by the county’s health department but the new state guidelines overthrew those plans.
“They had plans, they had dates, they were ready to go and then the state decided to step in for some arbitrary reason and shut everybody down. That’s when our lawsuit was redirected at the state and that’s where it is right now,” Davison said.
The lawsuit is asking the judge to overturn some of the state rules in place now. Specifically, Davison said, “a mandate of four feet. if you can't mandate four feet, you implement other mitigation measures. The second issue is this rule of stable groups. In a middle school and high school we’re supposed to keep the students in one classroom all day long, which is just completely impossible.”
The case was supposed to be heard Wednesday morning, but has been delayed until Monday to give the state time to respond.
Davison says that if the judge rules in their favor, some of the school districts involved could reopen the very next day.
