A ruling by a federal judge denied the Faculty Association’s request for a temporary restraining order and their request for a preliminary injunction to end in-person learning for nursery school to grade 2 due to safety precautions. The FA and the administration will participate in an arbitration hearing, and both sides hope they will be able to do so before Jan. 4, when classes resume after winter break.

According to Laboratory Schools Interim Director David Magill, the court denied the two requests because it was not their place to rule, instead suggesting arbitration.  

“The court basically denied the two orders because of the fact that the school has done all kinds of efforts to make sure that things are safe,” Dr. Magill said. “They basically said this is not the court’s decision, but you know you need to take this into arbitration, which is of course something that we are willing to do.”

 The judge didn’t rule on whether there had been a contract violation according to Faculty Association president Jim Catlett.

“The reason why the judge denied the injunction was because in seeking an injunction you have to request the maintenance of the status quo,” Mr. Catlett said. “And the judge identified that by allowing teachers the option to teach remotely, that would be upsetting the status quo.”

Despite this, Mr. Catlett emphasized that the judge did acknowledge there was some risk in having in-person school, although less than at other schools. 

“And I do want to add that even though the judge did not weigh into the merits of the case,” Mr. Catlett said, “in his comments he did say that there is risk for the teachers going into Lab, and he also said that Lab is less unsafe than other places.”