Suit to Enforce Open Meetings Law Could Invalidate BESE Order Masking Students

By Woody Jenkins, Editor • Central City News advertising manager Kim Powers last Friday filed suit against the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education for violating the Louisiana Constitution’s Open Meeting protections at its July 14 meeting.  The suit asks the District Court to void the action taken at that meeting — requiring students to wear masks at public and private schools. The case has been referred to 19th Judicial District Judge William Morvant.  

Ms. Powers was prohibited from testifying before BESE on the mask issue.  They said she had to wear a mask in order to testify against masks, and she refused.  BESE made no effort to accommodate her. Six Department of Public Safety police threatened to arrest her if she did not leave the meeting.

The Louisiana Constitution provides that no one can be denied access to a public meeting, except as provided by law, and the legislature has passed no law requiring masks to attend a public meeting. State law provides action taken at a meeting held in contravention of the Open Meetings law is voidable.

Ms. Powers has been concerned about Gov. John Bel Edwards attempting to mandate masks on citizens for months. However, her concern was heightened when she heard rumors that school students might be required to wear masks when school started this fall.

“The data has shown from the beginning that young people are hardly affected by the coronavirus.  National statistics show almost no deaths from Covid for people of school age.  It is extremely rare,” she said.

“BESE took its action without hearing anything about the effectiveness of masks or the fact that young people are not vulnerable to Covid. They need to hear facts.”

Reports by the East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner’s office show that no one under 29 has died from Covid19 since the pandemic began here in March (see story above).

Last month, Ms. Powers said, “When it comes to children, there is no reason they should be required to wear a mask. The governor talks about the science, but where is the science on masks? There is no science because there is no study showing an ordinary mask does anything. I’m very concerned about the psychological effect of teaching children to do something very strange for absolutely no reason. We need future adults with brains who don’t swallow every ridiculous lie that is fed to them hook, line and sinker!”

Because of her beliefs, she attended the Central School Board meeting, which considered the mask issue. The board adopted a plan that suggested but did not require masks.  When BESE announced it planned to adopt a statewide mask order, she attended and signed up to testify, but was denied the right to do so.

Her attorney, Alex St. Amant, said Open Meetings violations are supposed to be tried expeditiously.