Suit claims board violated Open Meetings Law and seeks injunction to stop mask mandate from going into effect.
A lawsuit filed Wednesday in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court on behalf of a resident in the Forest Hills Local School District says the board of education and its five members violated the Open Meetings Act when the board approved a mask mandate for students in kindergarten through sixth grade. The suit seeks a temporary restraining order/preliminary injunction to prevent the mask rule from going into effect claiming the board improperly gave notice of a special meeting when the vote was taken and then exceeded the scope of that meeting when imposing the mandate. A notice of a special board meeting was announced for Aug.7 and then rescheduled for Aug.11 for a “discussion on the 2021/2022 reopening plans”. The lawsuit claims the actual purpose of the meeting was to discuss and vote whether students would be required to use masks and “such specific purpose was known by the members and/or administration of the Forest Hills Local School District in advance of the special meeting held on August 11, 2021.
