Girl, 12, sues Sheffield school for ‘requiring’ pupils to wear face masks claiming it ‘risks causing children harm’
A SCHOOLGIRL is suing a school in Sheffield for ‘requiring’ pupils to wear face masks, claiming it “risks causing children serious harm”.
The 12-year-old, known only as AB, is taking legal action against the Tapton Academy School Trust, which runs schools in the Sheffield area.
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However, the trust said it was simply following government guidance, in a bid to avoid spreading Covid-19 among students and staff.
“The available evidence shows that not only is there no additional risk of transmission of the virus in school settings but also that, by comparison to any ordinary social or work setting, the risk is likely to be lower given the extremely low prevalence of the virus in schools.”
Hoar accepted his client did not have to wear a mask at school, but said she was faced with a school environment in which authority “aggressively” enforced the wearing of masks.
Ben Bentley, who represented the trust, refuted this.
The trust policy was to encourage, not to enforce, the wearing of masks.
The trust had “quite properly” carried out a risk assessment, and encouraged pupils to wear masks, he said.
Bently pointed out that the application for an injunction was brought by just one claimant in the school, which had 1,000 pupils.
Judge Roger ter Haar QC told the hearing jus judgement would be given at a later date.