ST. LOUIS, MO. – Missouri Democratic Chairman Michael Butler released the following statement regarding Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s suit against mask mandates in schools Tuesday. Most public schools across the state reopened their doors for in person class on Monday, many mandating mask use for students, teachers and staff. Between June and July, the rate of positive childhood cases increased by 113% in Greene County, one of the hardest hit in Missouri. Right now, across the state there are 3,054 cases in Missouri children aged 0-9 and even worse, more than 13,000 in ages 10-19.

“Eric Schmitt is suing Missouri’s schools. Now our schools have to take dollars that would go to children and spend money on lawyers. Our children and their schools need to focus on protecting and educating kids every day, not a frivolous lawsuit by our Attorney General. As a father of two, I cannot imagine how Schmitt came to this decision knowing kids could die. That is the bottom line, if our Republican leaders don’t want to accept science, then children will be at risk of death as a result. Masks prevent and slow the spread of the virus, which decreases infection rates and deaths. He cited the fact that the virus is not hitting children as hard. While this was the case during parts of the pandemic, the rapid spread of the Delta variant is a different story. Eric Schmitt knows those numbers. Since June, parts of our state have seen increases of over 100% in COVID positive kids. That was still summer – now we are sending them back to school. We support our schools and will continue to protect our kids because the Republicans won’t.”