Anti-mask suit targets Dover, Somersworth, Rochester, Oyster River schools. Who is behind it?

Legal challenges to school mask mandates amid the coronavirus pandemic have now hit virtually every school district in the Dover, Somersworth, Rochester and Durham area.

A newly formed nonprofit titled Parents Unite for Kids Health has filed a lawsuit against eight local school districts. To date, there is limited public information about who is behind the nonprofit and lawsuit, though some of their names have been made public.

The lawsuit challenges the adoption of mask mandates in the Dover School District, Barrington School District, Derry School District, Milford School District, Newmarket School District, Oyster River Cooperative School District, Rochester School District and Somersworth School District. 

Robert Fojo is representing the nonprofit as its attorney. He has also filed several other similar lawsuits across the state, including representing the 22 Exeter area families that filed suit in Rockingham Superior Court to challenge SAU 16’s requirement that students wear masks in school.

More:Exeter area parents fighting SAU 16 mask rule get day in court. Judge lectures attorney.

A motion was filed for a temporary restraining order to prohibit the districts from continuing and enforcing their mask mandates. Strafford County Judge Mark Howard denied the motion for emergency ex parte relief, stating there is no immediate loss or injury that will occur before the district can make their case. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for early November. 

"The ultimate goal is to get masks off our children," Fojo told Foster's Daily Democrat. "I represent a nonprofit that has members, whose children attend school in the school districts that were sued. There's been a large grassroots movement of parents who are tired of school districts dictating whether or not your children should be wearing masks in this environment."

Rochester already has a mask-optional policy. All or most of the other districts targeted by the lawsuit are requiring masks when the level of COVID-19 transmission is substantial in their communities, which it is now. These policies are in accordance with local, state and federal guidance for public health.

Officials from the Dover, Somersworth and Oyster River districts said they haven't been served with the lawsuit and therefore can't comment.

What we know about who filed the lawsuit against local NH schools

Fojo is representing Parents Unite for Kids Health. This means some of the people behind the lawsuit targeting the Dover, Somersworth, Rochester, Oyster River and other schools have veiled their identities. This differs from the Exeter area case, where the 22 families in the district of more than 4,800 students all included their names on the lawsuit. 

In the Parents Unite for Kids Health lawsuit, court documents refer to the nonprofit only as the plaintiff. There are some open records that list Michael and Kathleen Callahan as the incorporators of the nonprofit. The Callahans used their home address in Dover as the address of the nonprofit. The Callahans did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

Jeremy Tsakiris of Barrington, Mahew Manning of Barrington, Nathan Tsakiris of Dover and Michael Willerer of Newmarket are also listed as officers and incorporators of this nonprofit suing the local school districts.

Fojo stated that there are approximately 30 to 40 families involved in the lawsuit and that number is growing. He said "the members wish to remain anonymous."

"The bottom line is that (regarding) the school districts, this is not a lawsuit about whether or not masks work, it's a lawsuit about the fact that school districts do not have the authority to be issuing these broad health measures," Fojo said. "Nothing in their governing statutes provide them with the authority to issue these types of mask mandates."

Earlier this month, a group of Dover parents, which included several school board candidates, sent a petition with 50 signatures to the Dover School Board, echoing the actions of parents in towns across New Hampshire. The Callahans were among those who signed the petition which sought to end the mask mandate for the district’s approximately 4,200 students and 600 employees. The goal of the petition was to allow parents to make the choice for their children by forcing a citywide vote on the mask policy.

The petition was rejected by the Dover School Board because it references a state law that doesn't apply to the city of Dover, and instead only applies to New Hampshire towns that use a Town Meeting form of government.

'It's about safety':Dover petition targeting school mask policy rejected amid tense debat

Fojo keeps filing anti-mask suits after court losses and judge's lecture

Fojo has filed lawsuits challenging mask mandates around New Hampshire, including against the Hollis/Brookline School District and another against the Bedford School District that were both dismissed by two different judges. 

Rockingham County Superior Court Judge Marguerite Wageling, who heard Fojo's suits against Exeter area SAU 16, Epping, Londonderry and Timberlane, called the attorney's repeated lawsuits an attempt to “play whack-a-mole” with the court system. 

Wageling advised Fojo to stop suing local districts and appeal his court defeats to the state Supreme Court "so that the (financial) resources of your clients and resources of the various school districts can be minimized.”

Fojo also represents a group of parents and activists based in Bristol and Plymouth counties in Massachusetts, which sued the state education department, Cambridge, its school district and 13 other school districts, as reported by the Cambridge Day. Similar to the local New Hampshire case, a nonprofit titled Children’s Health Rights of Massachusetts brought the suit against the districts. 

Fojo's lawsuits claim masks are "harmful" and have "no benefit." These claims are counter to public health expert guidance at all levels.

Mask mandates in times of "substantial" transmission of COVID-19 aligns with guidance from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Strafford County Public Health Network, which have all recommended that all staff and students over age 2 wear masks inside schools.

Dr. Benjamin Chan, New Hampshire's state epidemiologist, has said school leaders in counties with “substantial” transmission should consider universal masking requirements.

Anti-mask mandate Dover School Board candidates form a nonprofit, too

A nonprofit called Parents Rights for Children's Health, very similar to the name of the group that filed the lawsuit, was started last month by a few Dover School Board candidates who were supporters of the anti-mask mandate policy petition. It is unclear what the intention of the nonprofit is, as none of the candidates involved responded Friday to requests for comment. 

Dover School Board candidates Jaime Berggren, Laura Morreale and Emily Lyon were listed as incorporators of the nonprofit, which bears the same mission statement as the Parents Unite nonprofit. Berggren's address is listed as the nonprofit's address.  Berggren, Morreale and Lyon are three of the six School Board candidates who signed the failed anti-mask mandate policy petition.

The nonprofit's mission statement says: The specific purpose of this nonprofit corporation is to protect the rights of parents to direct the care and upbringing of their children and make medical and health care decisions for their children. 

Reporting by Alex LaCasse of Seacoastonline is included in this report.