Poughkeepsie Schools Continuing To Require Masking

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY — Anyone entering Poughkeepsie school district buildings will still be required to mask up indoors, in spite of a state Supreme Court ruling that the governor exceeded her authority in implementing the mask mandate.

In a message to the community on the district's website, Superintendent Eric Jay Rosser said the state Education Department advised schools that an appeal by the Department of Health of the Nassau County Supreme Court ruling will trigger an automatic stay "that will unambiguously restore the mask rule until such time as an appellate court issues a further ruling."

Therefore, the Education Department said schools "must continue to follow the mask rule."

According to Monday's decision by Judge Thomas Rademaker, the law was "promulgated and enacted unlawfully by an executive branch state agency and therefore void and unenforceable as a matter of law."

The decision also said that it does not "opine on the efficacy, need or requirement of masks as a means or tool in dealing with the COVID-19 virus." The issue is only whether or not the rule was properly enacted, the decision said.

Rosser said, if different guidance is issued, the school district will update its protocols.