DEWITT, Mich. — The DeWitt Public Schools Board of Education announced Thursday the lawsuit, Holland v. DeWitt Public Schools, filed against the district in early 2022 has been dismissed.
Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of the lawsuit that was previously dismissed by the Ingham County Circuit Court on the grounds that the lawsuit had no legal merit. The appeal agreed that the board's policies properly authorized the superintendent to adopt mask guidelines.
The lawsuit challenged the superintendent's authority to require masks in school during a public health emergency without a vote from the district's Board of Education.
“We recognize that some did not agree with precautions the district undertook with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the district’s first priority in all decisions is protecting the health, safety and wellbeing of our 3,200 students and 300 employees,” DeWitt school board President Jason Hanselman said in a press release. “The district followed recommendations by federal, state and local health officials that wearing masks was the best way to prevent the virus’s spread in our community and prioritized protecting the most vulnerable individuals in our community. Our concerns were heightened given the number of students, teachers and other residents with underlying health conditions that make them susceptible to potential impacts of COVID-19.”
The court's opinion explained that “the extent [to which] the plaintiff raises other potential issues, plaintiff has not stated any of them in a sufficiently clear manner for us to be able to discern the precise legal basis on which he believes this Court could provide him any appellate relief.”
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