CLINTON COUNTY — A Clinton County judge says a school district can’t keep a student from in-person education without an official quarantine order from the county public health department.

The Temporary Restraining Order against Carlyle CUSD #1 was issued Monday in separate cases brought by parents Jeanette Deichman and Ronald Peters on behalf of their minor children.

According to the judge, the Carlyle School District does not have the authority to quarantine students.

As a result, a temporary injunction was issued Monday in favor of two Carlyle Unit School District parents whose children had been quarantined.

Carlyle has been hard hit by the coronavirus, with more than 40 students testing positive and at least another 200 being listed as close contacts.

The attorney for the parents, Thomas DeVore, says the law is clear that only a county health department can quarantine a student and tell them when they can return to class.

He argued the school district could not take over the role of quarantining students just because they were not getting the assistance they wanted from the county health department.

However, the judge did state that nothing in the order “shall be construed to prohibit the District from implementing a school-wide, or district-wide, remote learning program.”

And that’s exactly what Carlyle Community Unit School District #1 has done. The district has sent everyone – including the children of the court litigants — home for remote learning.