Talk to Leslie Manookian, a key organizer, who guided and galvanized the parents to victory.
Leslie Manookian Scores Legal Victory Against CA School District for Abusive COVID Conduct
PUBLIUS SPECIAL GUEST: Leslie Manookian, president and founder of Health Freedom Defense Fund (HFDF), a nonprofit which seeks to rectify health injustice through education, advocacy, and legal challenges to unjust mandates, laws, and policies that undermine our health freedoms and human rights.
Bishop Unified School District Ordered to Pay $400,000 and Conduct Training for All Employees in Settlement Agreement For Harming Students and Parents During Covid Pandemic
Bishop, California – May 9, 2023. With the help of Retired U.S. Federal Judge Stephen G. Larson, Bishop Unified School District (“BUSD”) and a group of Parents who filed claims on behalf of nine students for damages against BUSD for violating their children’s civil rights, resolved their claim on April 27,2023. BUSD not only has to pay $400,000 because of the harm the children suffered, BUSD must also provide counseling and tutoring for the students and training for all BUSD faculty and staff on “public health, response to public health emergencies, informed consent, and bullying/harassment/retaliation issues.”
The Parents who pursued their damages claims against BUSD resulting in this victory were inspired, galvanized, and educated by two key organizational leaders. Leslie Manookian, president of Health Freedom Defense Fund (HFDF), and Tracy L. Henderson, Esq. founder of CPU (California Parents Union and California Parents United) took these parents’ calls when they asked for help. A parent found vital information on Emergency Use Authorization and informed-consent laws on HFDF’s website. The parents viewed California Parents United’s California Tort Claim form free legal rights webinar, run by Tracy, a licensed California attorney. Armed with this knowledge, the group of parents confidently challenged the school district’s blind and harmful adherence to what BUSD mistakenly believed was a “mandate.” The effort ended in success that can be modeled by all parents and school districts across California and the nation.
“I was absolutely shocked when Madden came home from junior high and reported how the librarian made her raise her hand in front of her peers because she was not vaccinated and was then escorted outside to be tested for COVID against her will – and without parental consent! My shock turned to anger when I saw how sad, embarrassed and violated she was by this incident. The very people entrusted with my daughter’s wellbeing and education were the ones causing her harm!” said Parent Ron Gladding.
“My daughter was on the field for practice and her coach told her to put on a face mask – even though there was no outdoor masking requirement. When Gabrielle declined, she was told to keep her distance and stay away from the team or leave. She was completely embarrassed, but she stood up for herself. This humiliation went on for days…unacceptable.!” Parent Abby Veenker said.
In August 2021, Bishop parents and residents began expressing concerns about Bishop Unified School District’s (BUSD) handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. They urged BUSD to follow Title 21 U.S.C of federal law which governs the use of Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) products, such as COVID-19 masks, testing, and vaccines. This law, and California Health and Safety Codes, require that voluntary, informed consent be obtained prior to use of an EUA product as well as the option to accept or refuse EUA products. Parents and residents also sought protection from the school board for students’ civil liberties. They pleaded with the board members to consider the negative outcomes of the punitive enforcement of what was merely state health guidance. BUSD instead blindly implemented a medically non-sensical policy of handling school-based exposures, discriminatory COVID-19 testing based on “vaccination” status, and excluding students from extracurriculars and sports.
BUSD ignored state and federal informed consent laws which led to discrimination, segregation, bullying, harassment, retaliation and denial of a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) for many students. As a result, healthy children were segregated and isolated from their peers, suffered severe learning loss, were forced into independent study which is voluntary by law, and were harmed emotionally. At least one student with disabilities was even denied access to their Individualized Education Program (IEP).
BUSD refused to listen so the Parents marched down the path of filing tort claims. In California, a party is required to file a tort claim against the government as a first step under the Tort Claims Act. Unsurprisingly, BUSD rejected the claims and referred the matter to its liability coverage provider, Self-Insured Schools of California (SISC) Efforts to settle began in May 2022. The parents presented the relevant facts, law, and California Education Code to SISC. The parents were relentless and obtained copies of “smoking gun” emails between BUSD faculty and staff which corroborated their claims of civil rights violations. But ultimately, the parents had to request mediation so that a resolution could be achieved. SISC hired Judge Larson to mediate the dispute, and a meeting took place in January of 2023 during which the parents were represented by their attorney, Helena S. Wise, Esq.
“This is an important victory for all of the children in California who were emotionally and physically traumatized for their parents’ decision to decline to mask, test or vaccinate their children with the experimental COVID injections. Many parents and educators, who knew what was happening was wrong, stood up. Some succeeded and others did not. Now, they are all vindicated.” Tracy L. Henderson, Esq, California Parents Union Founder, said.
Judge Larson proposed a settlement and both parties accepted avoiding a lengthy and expensive trial. BUSD has twelve months to implement the required injunctive relief including mandatory training for its employees.
“The training required by Judge Larson should be implemented by every school district in California and across the nation as civil rights violations were not limited to BUSD. All Americans should be educated about informed consent laws so children’s and parents’ rights are never trampled again. HFDF and CPU are honored to have been asked by BUSD parents to conduct community trainings on these issues.” Leslie Manookian, Health Freedom Defense Fund Founder said.
BIO: Leslie Manookian is a former successful Wall Street business executive and award-winning documentary filmmaker.
Originally from Idaho, Manookian’s career in finance took her from New York to London with Goldman Sachs. She later became Director of Alliance Capital in London running their European Growth Portfolio Management and Research businesses. She conceived, wrote, and produced, The Greater Good, an award-winning documentary on vaccines.
In addition to the Health Freedom Defense Fund Board, Leslie currently serves on the boards of the Weston A. Price Foundation and Health Freedom Idaho. She is a qualified homeopath, nutrition and wellbeing junky, and a health freedom advocate.
Health Freedom Defense Fund (HFDF), led by Leslie, filed over a dozen lawsuits in the past two and a half years. The most significant lawsuit, Health Freedom Defense Fund et al. v. President Biden et al., ended the federal travel mask mandate nationwide.
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