CRANBERRY TWP — A Seneca Valley School District parent of four asked the state’s Commonwealth Court to rule that individual school districts may not mandate masks.

In a lawsuit filed Feb. 8, eight parents of Pennsylvania schoolchildren argue that individual school districts cannot require face coverings in school buildings, including one parent — identified only by the initials “E.M.” — of four Seneca Valley students.

The lawsuit asks the court to declare that “public school districts ... lack the independent legal authority to require students to wear masks in school,” and that the state secretary of education misinterpreted Pennsylvania law in informing school districts they could mandate face coverings.

E.M., who is identified as a parent of children identified only as L.M., L.M., Q.M. and F.M., alleges Seneca Valley’s soon-to-be defunct masking requirement has negatively affected all four children. As of Monday, the district will no longer have a mask mandate after the school board voted Monday to repeal it.

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