(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa Senate committee has dismissed complaints against Republican senators who voted to ban schools from requiring masks. Six Iowans accused G-O-P senators of violating Senate ethics rules by backing a ban that could put medically vulnerable students, staff and families at greater risk of getting Covid. Senate Republicans, in a written response, said voting for a bill isn’t an ethics violation.

Senator Pam Jochum, a Democrat from Dubuque who voted against the bill, says she’s sympathetic to the concerns of parents — but Jochum says the Senate Ethics Committee isn’t the proper forum to resolve the issue. “Unfortunately I believe the remedy really is in a court of law,” Jochum says.

On Monday, a judge issued a temporary order that lets school districts require face masks be worn on school grounds until the lawsuit challenging Iowa’s ban on mask mandates is decided.