BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — State Supreme Court Justice Emilio Colaiacovo issued a temporary order Friday on full-time in-person learning for middle schools and high schools in the Williamsville and Orchard Park school districts.
According to court paperwork, Colaiacovo ordered so long as community transmission rates of COVID-19 are at or near 100 per 100,000 people, the Williamsville and Orchard Park school districts may return to full-time in-person learning for middle and high school students beginning May 17, 2021. He further ordered the court reserves the right to modify the temporary order following the conclusion of the hearing on Monday.
In March, a group of Williamsville School District parents, on behalf of their children, filed a lawsuit against the Williamsville Central School District, Williamsville Board of Education, Governor Cuomo and the NYS Department of Education looking for five days of in-person learning to be offered every single week.
Robby Dinero, owner of Athletes Unleashed, who filed a lawsuit against the state and Governor Cuomo last year also filed a lawsuit in March "on behalf of his minor children and on behalf of all other similarly situated" against the Orchard Park Central School District, Orchard Park Board of Education, Governor Cuomo, NYSDOH and NYSED.
The lawsuit seeks an injunction on the Orchard Park Central School District from continuing to impose the hybrid/remote learning model.
"This action is not brought to mandate that all students attend in-person classes during the COVID-19 crisis. Instead, this action merely seeks to require that Orchard Park provide an option for five days per week of in-person education to all students whose parents desire that their students receive such in-person education," the lawsuit says.
