A judge in California has ordered a Fresno County private school to cease in-person classes because school administrators have refused to follow state and local guidelines to stop the spread of coronavirus, the Associated Press reports.
Immanuel Schools, a K-12 christian school, opened August 13th and has since ignored county health department and state guidelines to implement distance learning because of high positivity rates in the county.
The school claimed its students and staff had attained “herd immunity” based on a handful of coronavirus tests done by a parent who is a pathologist. The school argued that parents should decide if their children can attend class.
“While today’s decision is a setback, we know that God is still at work in our situation and we will continue to seek His Will,” the school’s superintendent, Ryan Wood, said in a statement posted on the school’s Facebook page.
California requires counties to be have 14 consecutive days of hitting standards that reflect reduced lowering coronavirus transmission rates. Fresno County has not achieved that goal and continues to see elevated case counts.