PHOENIX (AP) – A school district in Phoenix wants a judge to dismiss a lawsuit over its mask mandate, which could be a test case for other counties, arguing that a state law prohibiting such a policy is not yet in place. A preliminary hearing was held Wednesday in the case of Douglas Hester, a biology teacher who has sued the Phoenix Union High School District. Hester calls upon a judge in Maricopa County Superior Court to issue an injunction on the mandate, calling it unlawful. The district superintendent and board of directors are also named in the lawsuit. They voted for indoor masking requirements last week and became the first Arizona school district to defy the state. Governor Doug Ducey’s budget bill signed in June includes a state ban on school mask mandates during the pandemic. The law doesn’t go into effect until September 29th, despite the fact that it contained a provision saying the ban is retrospective circle. District officials have not yet decided whether to push for the mandate to remain in place after September, O’Grady said. “I don’t know what the real situation will be on September 29th when the law comes into effect. This is based on what’s going on with the pandemic, and as we all know, these things are changing rapidly, ”said O’Grady. Alex Kolodin, the Hester representative, said the real question is whether the district can defy state laws, especially if the district intends to continue to do its masking guidelines until the CDC changes its guidelines on the state of the pandemic, ” said Kolodin. Judge Randall Warner planned to have both sides present full arguments on August 13th. Since the Phoenix Union’s decision, four other school districts have broken the law. The largest in the city, the Tucson Unified School District voted Wednesday during an emergency meeting to require masks on campus. District Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo called the board’s decision a “strong exercise in local control”. Three Phoenix counties did the same earlier this week. CJ Karamargin, the governor’s spokesman, said school districts must obey the law, which is clear. “The legislature dealt directly with mask mandates in this past legislative period,” said Karamargin. “The governor enacted this law and the legislative intent is clear, the governor’s priorities are clear. So there shouldn’t be a question about what the intent and the aim are. ”The Republican governor continues to criticize the ban on masks as the number of virus cases rises in Arizona. The state reported 2,286 additional COVID-19 cases and seven more deaths on Wednesday, bringing the total number of the pandemic to 935,647 cases and 18,289 deaths. The number of virus-related hospital admissions rose to 1,252 on Tuesday. Public health experts say the rising number is most likely caused by the highly transmissible Delta variant, which was first discovered in India. Meanwhile, vaccinations in Arizona have gone up slightly. To date, more than 6.8 million doses have been administered. Over 3.7 million people – or 52.7% of the eligible population – have received at least one dose, and more than 3.3 million people are fully vaccinated. ___ AP author Paul Davenport contributed to this report.
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