The Point: NY mask mandate rulings sow confusion
The confusion and anxiety among school officials and parents Monday night and through Tuesday had been extraordinary. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
Monday night, as hordes of Long Island parents on both sides of the school-mask mandate fight took to the internet to debate what a Nassau County State Supreme Court judge’s rejection of the state’s mandate meant, the lawyers who advise Long Island’s school boards were doing the research.
John Gross, the senior managing partner of Ingerman Smith LLP, has represented school boards for much of his 50-year career. His firm represents a huge chunk of Long Island districts, while attorney Greg Guercio’s firm, Guercio & Guercio, handles most of the rest. Both men say the confusion and anxiety among school officials and parents Monday night and through Tuesday had been extraordinary.
"Soon after the judge ruled, some people began saying that because the state had appealed, a stay of the judge’s order was automatic, and the schools were still under a mandate," Gross said. "And that was the state’s position."
But after discussing the issue with colleagues at his firm, diving into the law itself, and conferring with Guercio, the brain trust eventually concluded that the stay was not automatic upon appeal, and the mask mandate was, at least momentarily, not in place.
It was a chaotic time for administrators.
Some districts had already sent out letters saying the stay had been automatic upon appeal and masks were required on Tuesday. Others sent out letters saying kids were free of the masks, at least for now.
Statements posted by Ingerman Smith early Tuesday morning said that "there is a serious question as to whether an automatic stay applies in this case." Guercio said he posted a similar statement. And by Tuesday afternoon, both men were convinced the stay and mask mandate were not in place. Of course, later in the day, a state appellate judge made the interpretation of the stay requirement moot by reinstating the mandate.
Gross said the confusion Monday night stemmed from the fact that there are appeals that generate automatic stays, if the action being appealed was supposed to precipitate another action. His example was a judge’s ruling that stopped a town from granting a construction permit. An appeal would create a stay, because the ruling was preventing construction.
And so, the lawyers for the vast majority of the Island’s school boards believed, there was no automatic stay of the judge’s decision to overturn the mask mandate because there was nothing else that not forcing kids to wear masks kept from happening.
Lane Filler is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
