Butler attorney Alexander Lindsay has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of 10 Western Pennsylvania parents against state officials and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, claiming students are not being afforded medical and mental health exemptions to the state mandate requiring face masks in schools to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The suit filed in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh seeks an injunction against the mask mandate, arguing that it violates the plaintiffs' civil rights against discrimination contained in the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam, Acting Deputy Secretary of Education Sherri Smith and UPMC are named as defendants in the suit.

The suit seeks a non-jury trial and asks for an injunction against the defendants for refusing requests for mask exemptions, an order blocking the defendants from refusing to consider mask exemption requests and an injunction to void the mask mandate unless the departments allow good faith evaluations of mask exemption requests.

The plaintiffs are parents living in Grove City in Mercer County, Rural Valley and Apollo in Armstrong County, Johnstown and Hastings in Cambria County, and McKeesport in Allegheny County who have children ranging from 6 to 17 years of age.

The mask mandate Beam issued Aug. 31 includes exceptions “if wearing a face covering would either cause a medical condition or exacerbate and existing one, including respiratory issues that impede breathing, a mental health condition or a disability,” the suit said, citing the masking order.

The following week, on Sept. 7, Smith notified schools that the masking order is “not a mask optional policy” and schools that allow parents to submit mask exemption requests due to a medical or mental health condition or disability without evidence is not in compliance with the order, according to the suit.

The suit cites a Sept. 3 document from the Department of Education that said, “School officials who fail to adhere to the order could lose the protection of sovereign immunity and may personally face lawsuits from those who may be affected by any official's attempt to ignore the order.”

In apparent attempts to follow the rule, schools have “rigorously” demanded that parents seeking exemptions for medical conditions must submit medical evidence, including medical records, according to the suit.

Physicians have told many parents who have sought medical exemptions for their children that no physician will support an exemption due to orders from their health care providers, including UPMC, according to the suit.

“As a result, the purported exception for children who, by wearing a face covering, would either suffer a medical condition or an exacerbation of an exiting one, including respiratory issues that impede breathing, a mental health condition or disability, is illusory,” Lindsay argues in the suit.

The suit also contends that the mask mandate should be void because it does not comply with the state Regulatory Review Act, which requires rules and regulations issued by state boards, agencies and departments to be reviewed.