Kearney County Courthouse (Brian Neben, Central Nebraska Today)
MINDEN — A Minden Board of Education member who was removed from the board in 2021, for refusing to wear a mask amid the COVID-19 pandemic, was ordered reinstated by a Kearney County District Judge.
Judge Morgan Farquhar in a ruling agreed Katherine Sinsel that the board members had exceeded their authority when they voted to removed her from her position in April 2021.
The board had voted in March 2021 to pass a resolution that required masks and allowed the board to consider a refusal to comply as an “unexcused absence.”
A state statue allows for board members to be removed for missing more than two consecutive regular meetings and their absences not being excused.
At a special meeting in April, the Minden school board voted to remove Sinsel, claiming that she had missed three consecutive meetings.
The judge also noted that the board had no authority to decide retroactively that Sinsel had violated the rule by refusing to wear a mask at the March meeting, where she had indeed been present and voting.
“The Court finds that the retroactive decision of the Board to deem Sinsel absent from the meeting was punitive and retaliatory,” the ruling stated.
After the two-day trial in August, Farquhar ordered that Sinsel be reinstated to the board in January 2024. The replacement appointed by the board, Darice Reed, will be removed.
“In effect, the Board is changing under what circumstances a member could be removed from office due to absence by imposing additional provisions and expanding existing statutes,” Farquhar wrote in their 18-page ruling,
“The Board does not have the authority to pass and enforce a regulation that directly alters Nebraska statutes, especially considering that the effect is to nullify the democratic process of electing school board members,” the ruling continued.
“For these reasons, that portion of the mask resolution as described above is invalid and unenforceable as the Board lacked authority to make and enforce such a rule that alters the rights and privileges of Sinsel and the process for determination of absences and vacancies,” Farquhar wrote.
