The authorities of two school districts in the state of Wisconsin have been sued in federal courts by parents of students who accuse them of not applying sufficient measures to mitigate the risk of contagion of coronavirus for students.
The lawsuits were filed this month by Shannon Jensen and Gina Kildahl, who blame the schools for the contagion of their children due to their lax policies on the use of masks, quarantine and contact tracing of the sick, according to the newspaper. The Washington Post.
Jensen's son attends an elementary school in Waukesha, just outside the city of Milwaukee.
While Kildahl's son goes to one located about 200 miles away, in Fall Creek.
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Authorities and health experts have recommended the use of the mask in schools to stop the spread of the coronavirus.CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP via Getty Images
In the past school year, students were required to wear face masks to class, but when classes resumed in the fall, that requirement was removed, according to the lawsuit, which indicates that the Waukesha and Fall Creek school districts' education boards voted do away with most preventive measures.
This decision went against the strategies recommended at the federal level by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
Jensen and Kildahl sent their children with masks anyway, but within weeks of starting school they both tested positive for the coronavirus.
Jensen sued his son's school district in Wisconsin federal court on Oct. 6, and Kildahl filed another lawsuit against his son's district on Monday, according to the Wisconsin affiliate WEAU 13 News.
Jensen alleges in his lawsuit that coronavirus cases spread in schools because classes were held without proper protective measures.
The school district and its board of directors "are consciously, unnecessarily, irrationally and recklessly exposing the public to COVID-19, endangering public health," he denounced.
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Both lawsuits were supported with funding from the northern Wisconsin-based Minocqua Brewing Company.
The company's committee is headed by Kirk Bangstad, a Democratic politician.
Bangstad, which was forced to shut down its brewery during the coronavirus pandemic and has been critical of its state's handling of the health crisis.
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"We look forward to filing a class action lawsuit against all Wisconsin school boards that do not offer students the mitigation measures recommended by the CDC," he told The Washington Post Monday night.
