A settlement based on suggested guidelines put forth by Judge Jeffrey Lanphear of the Rhode Island Superior Court was rejected this morning by the State of Rhode Island after a behind-closed-doors meeting in chambers at the state courthouse. The plaintiffs were willing to accept the settlement, which would have effectively ended the Southwell v. McKee et al school mask mandate lawsuit.

The forward looking settlement offer, in short, would simply require a permanent rule be established that before any future health mandates might be considered by the RI Department of Health, the RI DOH would go through the normal and transparent rules process, with public hearings, where scientific and other evidence would presumably be introduced and publicly debated.

Apparently, there would be no backward looking admission of guilt of any kind for imposing school mask mandates without appropriate scientific backing. Why the State rejected such a reasonable settlement is unknown.

It would be fair to speculate that the government does not want to give up arbitrary and complete control to issue future mandates, and wants to be free to do so without providing any public transparency or evidence to support such mandates. In both the Southwell case and (Dr. Stephen) Skoly v. McKee lawsuit, during the discovery process, the government has not been able to produce or cite any legitimate science or research data that would support their school mask and healthcare worker vaccine mandates.

Lead plaintiff, Rich Southwell, was stunned at the State’s repudiation of the offer. He has agreed to appear on OceanStateCurrent.com/LIVE for a Quick Pitch Update interview at approximately 1.15PM today (Friday).

The plaintiffs’ (parents) top medical witness, Dr. Andrew Bostom, was equally surprised. “This questionable decision by the state is obvious evidence that the Rhode Island’s government is unwilling to publicly weigh the evidence and go through the normal regulatory process, and clearly does not have the confidence in surviving public scrutiny, the next time they deem “emergency” health mandates should be imposed. They clearly do not want to give up their undemocratic government by fiat approach.”

Judge Lamphear, according to reports, was not pleased with the State’s decision and gave the Attorney General’s office 10 days to reconsider before deciding on next steps to proceed with the case.

The full case would then proceed on Tuesday March 21 with motions for discovery to be presented, unless a mediation process is established.

The State, in an effort to avoid an embarrassing discovery process that might prove that the emperor has no clothes, continually has filed motions to have the case dismissed.

Recent scientific and research revelations have proven beyond any reasonable doubt that universal masking policies, such as the school mask mandate imposed by RI DOH, are not effective in stopping the spread of airborne viruses.