MASK MANDATE TO BE DISCUSSED TODAY IN PA SUPREME COURT

The mask mandate for K-12 schools will be taken up today by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Reports say that oral arguments will be heard today concerning the future of the statewide school mask mandate.  On August 31^st, Acting PA Department of Health Secretary Allison Beam issued a mandate that required everyone at K-12 schools to wear masks as part of the effort to stop the spread of Covid-19 and have kids in school.  Wolf had also announced that the mandate would end on January 17^th.  However a number of parents in the state and some state legislators sued saying that she did not have the authority to issue the mandate without an emergency declaration in place.  Commonwealth court judges sided with the parents and state legislators, saying that the mask mandate would end on December 4^th.  When the verdict came in, the Wolf Administration appealed to the state supreme court, and the administration was also granted a stay on the ending of the mandate until the supreme court made a decision on the issue.

State Senate Pro Tempore Jake Corman was one of the people involved in the lawsuit, saying that he felt that school districts should have the right to make decisions like that, not the state government.  If the mandate is removed, control over masking requirements would return to the individual districts.