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He was unable to deliver the subpoenas, however, as he was not authorized to serve the documents, a fact that was brought up during the meeting by board attorney Neil Smith. So I can't get these out. Will you guys accept them? We're going to follow up on that. No, it's a yes. No, no, they should be properly served. All right, we'll find out what I need to do to get them properly served, and they will be properly served. Following an awkward yet peaceful discussion of this fact between Nussbaum and board officials, Nussbaum concluded his comments, adding that he would find out what process is required to have the documents properly served. Next to speak was Jennifer Cranny, who introduced herself simply as a resident of Pikeville. Cranny produced a picture of the board members in which the members were photographed together in the boardroom while not wearing masks, adding that school officials should not be afraid to accept the subpoenas Nussbaum was offering them. To point out, this is about the mask mandate, obviously. Is this your old picture right here, standing right here without masks? Yes, ma'am. That's shame. Why? Why? How can you honestly, honestly not feel like hypocrites every single day? This is ridiculous. How can you tell parents that they have to mask their babies, and you have authority over their bodies? But look at you guys. This is a shame. We here in Pikeville, we pray at our board meetings. We're honest. We don't hide from subpoenas. We man up, and we take it. And we have a conversation with each other respectfully, and we don't hold this Washington DC hypocritical political crap. We don't do that. That's all I have to tell you. Thank you, ma'am. Once their opinions had been heard, Nussbaum, Cranny, and a few other audience members who had been seated near them all left the room together. Mountain Talk News approached Nussbaum outside of the board room and offered him a chance to comment on camera. However, he declined, stating that he did not want to publicize the case. He did add that he may be willing to speak over the phone, but did not commit to a time, stating only that he would contact the station. As of press time, Nussbaum had not reached out to comment. Nussbaum and the parent of a Pike County student filed the lawsuit and are representing themselves. And while that may give the appearance of a grassroots effort, evidence uncovered by Mountain Talk media indicates it may be more like AstroTurf. A search of court records across the nation uncovered at least 14 more lawsuits which are nearly identical to the Pike County complaint. They include another lawsuit in Kentucky in Callaway County, as well as seven school districts in Ohio and Dallas Independent Schools in Texas, as well as five lawsuits against a single California school district. All of the complaints were filed in the past month, present the same arguments in the same order, seek relief on the same grounds and threaten to seek removal proceedings against officials in each school district. And while there are some differences, many of the passages read the same, word for word, across all of the lawsuits. In fact, some of the documents in the Pike County case include references to one of the other lawsuits. The similarities weren't lost on school officials. The lawsuit, again, is a copy and paste lawsuit that originated in Cleveland, Ohio and again, I don't have a problem with people in their opinion, but I do have a problem with that is gonna cost our school district money to deal with this in the federal court. It's gonna take resources away from our students and that's difficult for me to accept. Atkins emphasized multiple times how fighting the case in court would be detrimental to students as school funds would have to be redirected in order to cover the cost of litigation. Our board, myself, when we make decisions for our students, students' safety is always paramount. It's always a number of priority for us and we're gonna always make decisions that keep our kids safe. The remainder of the meeting saw a presentation given by Dr. Faudi all across of Pikeville Medical Center in which he highlighted the science behind the effectiveness of both the COVID vaccine as well as other mitigation efforts such as masking, as well as an update on local school news such as the purchase of new school buses which will be equipped with both security cameras and air conditioning. For Mountain Top News, I'm Joshua Slung.