By Howard Fischer, | Capitol Media Services December 20, 2021
If your child is sent home to quarantine when school resumes because of possible exposure to Covid, you have the right to challenge that in court.
And the state will even pay for your lawyer.
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That bit of information comes because state Sen. Kelly Townsend, R-Mesa, decided to ask Attorney General Mark Brnovich about a section of the state Health Code that gives state and county health officials various powers during a state of emergency. And one of them specifically allows those agencies to “require isolation or quarantine of any person.”
Townsend has never been a fan of those powers.
In fact, earlier this year, she crafted legislation which would require the governor to call a special session of the legislature any time or he or she declares an emergency. That would allow lawmakers to review what the governor has done, the restrictions imposed, and decide for themselves whether they are appropriate.
But what got Townsend’s attention is that county health departments were delegating the power to quarantine to individual school districts. And she said that has been happening with schools sending children home to quarantine if they believe the youngsters had been exposed to the Covid virus.
“There’s a lot of angry parents out there,” Townsend told Capitol Media Services.
