A group of parents in the eastern part of Virginia have challenged the new Governor’s Executive order that not only, in effect, reversed the prior Governor’s own edict but also ventured to impose a statewide prohibition against any Virginia school board requiring masks of its students during the continued pandemic.

Now, a group of Virginia school boards has mounted its own legal challenge in a different Virginia court, arguing essentially that the new Governor has overreached. Here is a copy of the complaint filed by the school boards.

It may be that in this situation neither the courts nor lawyers really can provide an effective civic answer that will help school communities resolve this issue amicably among self-governed people whose emotions are running high.

On the legal front, we take this opportunity to make available again our law firm’s Doug Guynn’s leading article from 2013 on the Virginia constitutional authority of local school boards. Here it is.