KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A bill proposed in the Missouri House of Representatives would reimburse schools for legal expenses incurred during lawsuits brought by Attorney General Eric Schmitt.
Schmitt's active legal activity has become a prominent political feature of the pandemic, with his office suing many of the schools in the Kansas City area over various coronavirus-related policies.
Lately, Schmitt has sued multiple school districts to end school mask mandates, but he has also sued counties and cities over their mask mandates and the federal government over vaccine requirements. He has also sued health departments over quarantine policies.
House minority leader Crystal Quade, a Democrat from Springfield, filed the new bill on Wednesday.
“Local public school budgets are already stretched thin because the pandemic,” Quade said in a press release. “They shouldn’t have to foot the bill for Eric Schmitt’s shameful campaign stunts.”
Schmitt is running for U.S. Senate, which opponents of his suggest is the reason for his legal activity.
"In recent days, Schmitt, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, has sued 45 public school districts across Missouri over their mask mandates for students, faculty and staff," Quade said in the release. "Schmitt’s lawsuits, which cite scant legal authority in support of his position, come just as many Missouri schools have to been forced to shut down due to coronavirus outbreaks."
Multiple Kansas City area districts have been forced to close in the past few weeks due to staff and student absences, something that has also been happeningacross the state of Missouri.
The bill proposed by Quade is House Bill 2569 and is modeled after a similar bill pre-filed in the state Senate in December by Doug Beck, a Democrat from Affton. That bill is Senate Bill 992.
