LAFAYETTE, La. (Legal Newsline) – A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit brought against a Louisiana school district that placed a student who wouldn’t wear a face mask in isolation while his mother came to get him.
Kelly Beasley’s lawsuit over the treatment of her son said he was crying hysterically alone in a classroom when she arrived at Caneview Elementary School on Aug. 11, 2021. Her suit said he was traumatized by the ordeal.
But on Feb. 24, federal magistrate judge Patrick Hanna issued a report and recommendations that suggested her case against Iberia Parish School Board and several of its employees should be dismissed. On March 15, Judge Robert Summerhays agreed and tossed the case, without prejudice, in a two-page order.
Summerhays noted there was no response by Beasley’s lawyer after the R&R was issued.
Beasley, a Catholic, says she was forced to withdraw both of her children from local schools to homeschool them because of the statewide mask mandate, which is no longer in effect.
Her lawsuit says the school, by attempting to force the child to wear a mask, infringed on her religious rights and punished her son by placing him in a FINS program for missing school.
The R&R rejected claims for an injunction against an already canceled mandate and says she failed to allege facts that say her due process rights were violated. School staff followed the attendance policy “and provided Plaintiff with ample opportunity to discuss and/or rectify (the student’s) attendance record prior to initiating a truancy referral,” Hanna wrote.
“(T)his court rejects Plaintiff’s argument that she was forced from her employment,” Hanna added.
“Rather, Plaintiff’s decision to leave her employment to homeschool her children was the result of her own choice and one Plaintiff is free to make.”