Masks To Stay Optional At Canon-McMillan School District After Judge Denies Temporary Restraining Order

WASHINGTON, Pa. (KDKA) - Masks will remain optional at the Canon-McMillan School District. A federal judge denied the request for a temporary restraining order in court on Monday.

The judge said he feels issuing a temporary restraining order would be drastic and said it should not be up to the courts to decide whether or not masking should be implemented in schools.

Attorney Alex Saksen, who's representing the parents in this case, argued that the district should have mandatory masking because it's the best way to keep kids in the classroom. He pointed out that immunocompromised kids are being deprived of an in-person education due to the lack of a mask mandate in the district.

Saksen called Superintendent Michael Daniels to the stand, trying to drive home to him that the CDC recommendation for mask-wearing regardless of vaccination status should be enough to mandate mask-wearing in the district, but that wasn't enough to win his case. He went on to say these types of cases shouldn't be handled at the court level.

"I think that whoever can make it so we don't have to come to court. Policy shouldn't be set in court. That's what legislators do, so I think if there is somebody who can put me out of business in filing these things, that's who the right person is," said Saksen.

"As I indicated in my argument advocating for dismissal, if the next case involves one of the districts we are representing involving a mask mandatory policy and they didn't do anything procedurally irregular, we will defend them as we did Canon-McMillan in this case," said Canon-McMillan District Solicitor Joseph Cavrich.

Before the district solicitor presented his arguments, he asked the judge to dismiss the case due to lack of evidence. He went on to say the district hasn't violated anything and will continue to monitor the ever-changing situation when it comes to the spread of COVID-19.

Attorney Saksen said he plans to keep on fighting this case.