County threatens to shut down Christian school for violating coronavirus orders - MLive.com

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UPDATE: Ottawa County shuts down Christian school over COVID-19

OTTAWA COUNTY, MI – Ottawa County has threatened to shut down Libertas Christian School in Hudsonville for allegedly violating coronavirus protocols.

Ottawa County says two teachers have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

The county set a noon Friday, Oct. 23, deadline, for compliance and threatened to post notices at the school.

“If necessary we will seek law enforcement vehicles on Friday to block entry,” Douglas Van Essen, the county corporation counsel, said in an email Thursday to the school’s attorney.

Libertas, a private, non-denominational Bible-based school with over 265 students - ranging from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade - earlier filed a federal lawsuit against state and county officials over enforcement of COVID-19 orders.

U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney earlier this week rejected Libertas' request for a temporary restraining order but ordered both sides to expedite filings for a hearing Wednesday, Oct. 28, on a request for a preliminary injunction.

“The Court is well aware of the fluid and evolving nature of this situation,” Maloney wrote.

“Teachers at the school have tested positive to COVID-19. The parties dispute whether students and other staff have been exposed and whether certain contact tracing measures are appropriate. Libertas generally opposes the various social distancing, gathering size limitations and facial covering requirements, on religious grounds and also on state-law grounds. And, Ottawa County has threatened to shut Libertas down if Libertas does not comply with several orders issued by the Ottawa County Board of Public Health.”

The school said it had its own protocols to keep students and staff safe. The school said it had been threatened with prosecution for allegedly violating local and state health orders.

“It is inappropriate, unwise, and unconstitutional to try to fit the State’s current designs of how an industrialized state-run school should operate to this bible-based association,” attorney Ian Northon wrote in court records.

The rules – and resulting threats to close the school - violate First Amendment protections to freely associate in chapel, and in the classroom, Northon said.

“Libertas also recognizes that the health, safety, and wellbeing of its teachers and students is paramount -- second only their faithfulness to the Lord -- and that Libertas should aim to protect its teachers and students against COVID-19.”

Van Essen, in an email exchange with Libertas' attorney, said: " Your client’s belligerence is unfortunate."

He said that two teachers have been infected. One of them claimed to not be employed while the other would not identify his employer, Van Essen said.

He said Libertas did not report either positive case.

“No one knew (until an anonymous report Wednesday) where (the second teacher) worked because he refused to say. This is in part why Libertas' compliance with the law is required."

Northon responded to Van Essen: “This is not belligerence but an attempt to get you and the County to slow down long enough to read the medical documents provided before you issue further unfounded orders alleging that my client is creating an imminent health threat or imminent danger when it is following or exceeding doctors' orders for isolation and return to work and the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and State’s own guidance on contact tracing.”

In a statement Friday, Ottawa County Department of Public Health said it issued a final cease-and-desist order over an "ongoing outbreak of COVID-19, and the school refuses to mask or engage in social distancing. "

It said the school is not quarantining those in contact with COVID-19 patients.

Earlier this month, the state Supreme Court found Gov. Gretchen Whitmer lacked authority to issue executive orders including a mask requirement and limits to the size of gatherings.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services then issued emergency public-health orders similar to Whitmer’s orders.

Libertas named as defendants in its request for temporary-restraining order: Whitmer, state Attorney General Dana Nessel, MDHHS director Robert Gordon and Marcia Mansaray, the deputy health administrator of Ottawa County Department of Health.

Read more:

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