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Michigan Gov. Gretchen WhitmerChip Somodevilla / Staff / Getty

LANSING, Michigan, December 10, 2020, (LifeSiteNews) – Two Catholic high schools in the Diocese of Lansing, Michigan are suing the state over its ban on in-person learning, arguing that the ban is unconstitutional. 

Lansing Catholic High School, Father Gabriel Richard High School, and the Michigan Association of Nonprofit Schools filed suit against the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services in federal court on Monday. 

The Michigan Association of Nonprofit Schools represents about 400 schools across the state.

Earlier this week, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services extended its Coronavirus epidemic order, which was originally slated to end on December 8, 2020. 

Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s extension forbids Michigan highs schools, colleges, and universities to hold in-person classes through December 20, 2020. 

The schools are suing because they believe the order violates their right to a faith-based education under the First Amendment. 

According to Brian Broderick, the Executive Director of the Michigan Association of Nonprofit Schools, the decision to file suit against the state was not made lightly. 

“This isn’t our preferred advocacy effort to go to court,” Broderick told Lansing’s WLNS. “We always try to work hand in hand with state government, but this issue is of such monumental importance the ability to offer in-person education and the ability to offer religious training and religious education that it became necessary to file suit.”

“Our schools are doing a great job in protecting students [and] protecting faculty,” he also told the news station. 

Dominic Iocco, the President of Lansing Catholic High School said, “All the evidence shows that during the three months we had in-person education at Lansing Catholic there were no COVID-19 outbreaks; no spread of COVID-19; and no hospitalizations of students or staff, thus adding no burden to our healthcare system.” 

“We simply want to continue with our tried and tested COVID-19 safety plan to safely educate and form our students consistent with our constitutional religious liberties,” Iocco added. 

Data cited in the suit shows that both Lansing Catholic High School and Father Gabriel Richard had very few instances of people testing positive for COVID-19. 

Lansing Catholic School recorded only 15 positive COVID-19 cases in the last three months and is comprised of 437 students and 43 faculty members. All 15 cases were believed to have been contracted off campus. 

Comparatively, Father Gabriel Richard High School has 468 students and 47 faculty members and recorded 27 positive COVID-19 cases. Like Lansing Catholic, Father Richard Gabriel believes all of their cases were contracted off campus. 

Teachers and parents alike are becoming very concerned about the emotional and mental damage students are feeling because they are not in school. 

“As a Catholic family, we choose to send our son to a Catholic school because we firmly believe that the human person is both soul and body and that the practice of our faith demands certain physical elements, such as the reception of the Holy Eucharist and Sacrament of Reconciliation, that cannot be accomplished through video chats and other technological means,” said Dr. Christopher J. Abood, who is a party to the suit and has a son at Lansing Catholic.

Jamie Collins, the mother of two students at Lansing Catholic said, “They have done everything they can to keep our children safe. And our children should be in school. They’re being kept safe and their mental health is at risk at this point.”

The schools which have filed suit against the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services are seeking protection to be able to reopen legally.  

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