Lakewood family sues Pierce County health department over remote learning requirement
A Lakewood family has filed a lawsuit against the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department and health director Anthony Chen over a directive made in August that public and private schools must start the school year with remote learning in light of COVID-19.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in Pierce County Superior Court, claims that TPCHD and Chen “violated the required administrative procedures for a proper health directive” and “ignored the current and pre-eminent scientific and medical information regarding the health of school-aged children in the face of the novel coronavirus.”
Wendy Cochran filed the lawsuit on behalf of her three children, who attend Charles Wright Academy in Tacoma, and “on behalf of all school families in Pierce County who will be deprived of the opportunity to attend in-school” this fall.
Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department spokesperson Dale Phelps told The News Tribune on Tuesday that the department’s attorney and staff are reviewing the lawsuit and drafting a response.
“The Director of Health’s requirement is based upon the Governor’s decision tree that considers rate of community disease spread. As of August 24, 2020, the 14-day case rate per 100,000 in Pierce County was 90.7,” Phelps wrote in an email.
“According to the state Department of Health’s decision tree, when the community transmission of disease drops below a total 14-day case rate of 75 per 100,000 and the test positivity rate is below 5%, schools can consider in-person learning for elementary students then gradually add hybrid in-person learning for middle or high school students. We will add a dashboard on our COVID-19 information for schools page next week to help parents track these important indicators,” Phelps continued.
The Department has urged schools to continue to plan for hybrid models to be prepared for some return to in-classroom learning when the level of COVID-19 disease spread decreases.
In the lawsuit, the Cochrans said “their school designed a plan that abided by current COVID-19 safety requirements” for in-person learning.
“Despite these thoughtfully planned out safety measures, Dr. Chen issued a letter on August 12, 2020, mandating that all public and private schools in Pierce County must conduct remote education for the upcoming school year,” the lawsuit states.
Chen issued a recommendation in July that schools in Pierce County return to school in September through remote learning due to high transmission cases of COVID-19, which were around 130 cases per 100,000 people. Gov. Jay Inslee issued guidance on Aug. 5 that clarified when school districts can reopen for in-person learning. Counties with more than 75 cases per 100,000 people within a 14-day period are recommended for distance learning only.
Chen issued another letter on Aug. 12 clarifying that his recommendation was a requirement and included both public and private schools.
The lawsuit said that Chen’s decision “failed to involve the TPCHD board of directors in the decision to issue a blanket restriction.”
“Dr. Chen’s letter also failed to include the board in mandating a blanket one-size-fits-all approach that did not consider children’s special needs, restriction to robust internet, or family situations that would make distance learning impossible and unworkable,” the lawsuit stated.
The lawsuit also states “scientific studies suggest that COVID-19 transmission among children in schools may be low,” and that remote learning can cause harm to children, who can lose access to services that help them.
“Remote learning leads to severe learning loss and makes absorbing information more difficult for students with disabilities, developmental delays, or other cognitive disabilities,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit adds that after Chen’s Aug. 12 directive, some members of the health department’s Board of Health questioned whether it was “equitable” and that it required consultation by the board.
The lawsuit requests Chen’s requirement be “invalidated.”
“The request of a Pierce County judge is to clarify Dr. Chen’s mandate is not legally enforceable,” Darrell Cochran, lawyer and father of the family issuing the lawsuit, told The News Tribune on Tuesday.
Darrell Cochran said they made the decision as a family to challenge the order from the health department.
“Children need to have their peers and they need to have the social interaction in order to fully maximize their education,” said mother Wendy Cochran.
The three Cochran students told The News Tribune on Tuesday they miss their friends, who they haven’t seen since they stopped going to school in person in March.
“I miss my teachers, I miss my friends — I miss all of that stuff,” said second grader Decker Cochran.
“We had to go home on a Friday and we just didn’t see each other since,” added eighth grader Taylor Cochran.
Wendy Cochran said COVID-19 isn’t going away anytime soon.
“We need to take precautions, we need to make it as safe as possible, and we need to get our kids back to school,” she said. “It’s just not right. We’re ready to fight.”
This story was originally published August 25, 2020 at 12:41 PM.
CORRECTION: The name of the family filing a lawsuit against the health department was misspelled. The Cochrans filed the lawsuit on Monday.
