LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. (WDVM) — Loudoun County Public Schools in Virginia has suspended 29 students after they refused to follow the schools’ mask mandate.
“They were suspended under an existing policy 8210: for willful or continued disobedience of school rules and school personnel. The issue involved was a failure to follow LCPS COVID-mitigation measures,” said LCPS’ Public Information Officer Wayde Byard in a statement to NewsNation affiliate WDVM.
Byard said students will be suspended “until they comply with the mitigation protocol or 10 days maximum.”
The suspension comes after Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares joined a lawsuit against Loudoun County Public Schools by three parents.
Youngkin and Miyares filed a motion on Wednesday requesting to join the lawsuit. The school board voted to uphold the mask mandate for all of the schools in the county, despite Youngkin’s executive order allowing parents to choose.
The lawsuit comes just weeks after seven Virginia school boards filed a lawsuit in Arlington County Circuit Court against Youngkin’s executive order, saying it violates state law.