A group of Christian high schools claims Michigan’s COVID-19 restrictions violate religious freedom rights. The schools have filed a federal lawsuit in west Michigan to block the continuation of the restrictions.
That’s after the state Department of Health and Human Services extended its COVID restrictions through December 20th. They include restricting high school classes to remote, on-line instruction.
Brian Broderick is with The Michigan Association of Non-Public Schools. It represents 400 religious schools with roughly 90 thousand students. He says being at school is an essential part of faith-based learning.
“You can incorporate some aspects of religious training in an online format, in a remote format, but you don’t get the full impact of religious training, of faith formation, when you’re doing it over a computer,” he said.
Broderick says the restrictions are too much as the state is allowing many personal services and school and professional sports events to go ahead.
From the complaint:
“Simply put, if masks and other precautionary measures are sufficient protection to allow individuals to exercise the yet-to-be-announced constitutional rights to get a tattoo, go the gym, or attend cosmetology school, so too are they sufficient protection for religious schools to exercise their constitutional right to the free exercise of religion.”
For all MANS-member schools, education is not merely oral transmission of facts and figures. It involves making visits to the chapel or spending a few impromptu moments speaking with a priest or consecrated woman about a thought or a situation that they just experienced. None of this can be adequately substituted with computer screens.
The Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement that restoring in-person learning is a high priority once the spread of COVID-19 is under control.