A Cullman resident has filed a petition for an emergency injunction against the Cullman City School System with a claim that the COVID-19 pandemic does not constitute a public health emergency and demanding the system not promote the use of masks and vaccines to prevent the virus. 

Brian Ogstad filed the petition in the Cullman County Circuit Court last week and is asking the court for an immediate halt to the city school system’s current COVID-19 procedures.

The Cullman City School System currently does not require staff members or students to wear masks while at school, but does recommend mask use by anyone who feels more comfortable wearing them. 

The system is also not requiring students or staff members to receive a vaccine, but did partner with Cullman Regional to host a mobile vaccine clinic at Cullman High School earlier this month. 

In an email to The Times Wednesday morning, Cullman City School Board Attorney J.R. Brooks said the board has not been served a copy of the lawsuit and he does not have a comment at this time. 

Ogstad has previously appeared at meetings of the Cullman City School Board and the Cullman City Council to speak out against the procedures that have been put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

At the school board’s July 13 meeting, he claimed masks contain harmful toxins that are harming children, and said the school system should refuse any state or federal orders to require mask usage.

“I wasn’t loud enough last year, and I knew it then, so I apologize for that,” he said. “This year, I promise you, if they try to force us to wear masks again, I would say ‘No.’”

Ogstad’s petition claims that masks do not work in preventing the spread of COVID-19 and are instead causing harm to the American psyche and being used as a distraction from more serious health issues. 

The petition, which he filed without an attorney, also includes references to injuries and deaths that were caused by the COVID-19 vaccines using the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. Similar claims have circulated on social media and have been debunked by scientists and medical experts.

VAERS is co-managed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to detect possible safety problems in U.S.-licensed vaccines, but the system’s Frequently Asked Questions page cautions against using the system for proof of vaccine-related injuries or deaths. 

“There have been instances where people have misinterpreted reports of deaths following vaccination as deaths caused by the vaccines; that is not accurate,” the page states. “VAERS accepts all reports of adverse health events following vaccinations without judging whether the vaccine caused the adverse health event. Some reports to VAERS represent true vaccine reactions and others are coincidental adverse health events and not related to vaccination. Overall, a causal relationship cannot be established using information from VAERS report alone.”

In a USA Today “Fact Check” article, Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Immunization Safety Office, said, “Statements that imply that deaths following vaccination equate to deaths caused by vaccination are scientifically inaccurate, misleading, and irresponsible.”

Judges Gregory Nichols and Martha Williams have recused themselves from the case, citing conflicts of interest. The case has not yet been reassigned.